K.R. ARAVINDAKSHAN NAIR Vs. ESSEN BHANKERS, PATHANAMTHITTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner herein is the revision petitioner/accused in a prosecution under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. The request of the petitioner in this petition is to get the disputed signature in Ext. P10 compared with the admitted signatures of the petitioner by a handwriting expert of the Forensic Science Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram.

(2.) THE case of the first respondent/complainant who is a money lender is that the accused borrowed a sum of Rs. 4.25 lakhs as evidenced by Ext. P 10 voucher dated 9-4-1999 and towards discharge of the said liability the accused issued Ext. P4 cheque dated 14-3-2002 for Rs. 6,10,000/- and on presentation of the cheque in the drawee bank it bounced.

(3.) THE revision petitioner has a grievance that one Advocate Mohan was engaged by him to appear for him in the trial court and the said Advocate expired during the pendency of the case and since a junior advocate was thereafter appearing for the petitioner, he did not take prompt steps for getting the disputed signature examined by an expert.