SALIN JACOB Vs. RASHTRA DEEPIKA LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The revision petitioner herein is the accused in C.C.No.1015 of 2004 of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court- II(Mobile), Kottayam, and the first respondent is the complainant in the said case. This is a prosecution brought under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. The complainant is a publishing company, by name "Rashtra Deepika", represented by an authorised agent. The case of the complainant is that as a circulation agent of the company, the accused had issued a cheque in favour of the company for Rs. 52,546/- in discharge of the amount due from him as the price of the periodicals and publications received by him for circulation, and that the cheque was bounced due to insufficiency of funds. In spite of notice, the accused failed to make payment of the cheque amount. On the said allegations, one V.P. Thomas brought prosecution on behalf of the company.

(2.) The accused appeared before the learned Magistrate, and pleaded not guilty when the substance of the accusation was read over and explained to him. The complainant company examined one witness, and marked Exts.P1 to P11 documents in the trial court.

(3.) When examined under Section 313 Cr.P.C., 1973 the accused denied the incriminating circumstances, and maintained a defence that the person who brought the prosecution has no authority under the law as an agent or representative of the company, and that the very prosecution is non-est for want of proper authority. The accused examined himself as DW2 in defence with the permission of the court, and another witness was also examined on his side as DW1.