K. P. RAMACHANDRAN NAIR Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are Criminal Miscellaneous Cases filed under Sec. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as 'Cr.P.C' for convenience). The petitioners in Crl.M.C. Nos. 226/2022, 1986/2022 and 1691/2022, who are accused Nos.1 and 2 in S.T. Nos. 335/2019, 336/2019 and 337/2019 respectively, on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-II, (Forest Offences), Manjeri, seek quashment of Annexure-A9 complaints in the above cases. The respondents herein are State of Kerala as well as the original complainant in the above cases.

(2.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners as well as the learned Public Prosecutor and the learned counsel for the 2nd respondent.

(3.) It is argued by the learned counsel for the petitioners that there was no proper legal notice mandated under Sec. 138(b) of the Negotiable Instruments Act (hereinafter referred to as 'N.I Act' for short) and therefore, the entire cognizance is bad in law. Accordingly, he pressed for quashment of the respective complaints. The crux of the argument of the learned counsel for the petitioners is that on dishonour of the cheques alleged to be issued by KAYPEE WIRE PRODUCTS, the 2nd respondent herein/the complainant in all these cases issued notices in a wrong address and as such the notices were returned with the endorsement 'no such addressee'. Therefore, the complaints are liable to be quashed, for want of notice. In support of this contention, the learned counsel placed 2 decisions. The first decision cited is one reported in [2012 KHC 4244 : 2012 (12) KLD 16 : 2012 (2) KHC SN 36 : 2012 (4) SCALE 644 : 2012 (2) KLJ 456 : 2012 (2) KLT 736 : 2012 (5) SCC 661 : AIR 2012 SC 2795 : 2012 CriLJ 2525], Aneeta Hada and Ors. V. M/s. Godfather Travels and Tours Pvt. Ltd. and anr. In the said decision, the Apex Court considered maintainability of prosecution under Sec. 141 of the N.I Act and held that arraigning a company as an accused is imperative and no prosecution would lie without arraigning the company as an accused.