SUJIES BENEFIT FUNDS LTD. Vs. M. JAGANATHUAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Challenge in this criminal appeal is to the judgment and order dtd. 20/6/2012 passed in C.A.No.186 of 2010 on the file of the V Additional District and Sessions Court, Coimbatore, reversing the judgment and order dtd. 16/8/2010 passed in C.C.No.379 of 2003 on the file of the Judicial Magistrate Court No.VII, Coimbatore.

(2.) For the sake of convenience, the appellant and the respondent will be referred to as complainant and accused, respectively.

(3.) The complainant is a chit company and it is alleged that the accused was a subscriber. It is the case of the complainant that the accused had borrowed loans on several dates for about eight years and a total sum of Rs.21,09,000.00 was due, towards which, he gave a cheque (Ex-P14) dtd. 3/2/2003 for a sum of Rs.19,00,000.00; the complainant presented the cheque on 4/2/2003 and it was returned unpaid with the endorsement "Account Closed" vide bank's return memo (Ex-P15) dtd. 5/2/2003; therefore, the complainant issued a statutory demand notice (Ex-P17) dtd. 20/2/2003, for which, the accused issued a reply notice (Ex-P19) dtd. 27/2/2003 repudiating the debt; since the accused did not comply with the demand, the complainant initiated a prosecution in C.C.No.379 of 2003 before the Judicial Magistrate Court No.VII, Coimbatore, for the offence under Sec. 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (for brevity "the NI Act"), against the accused.