(1.) THE instant criminal original petition has arisen in this way, THE respondent Shanti instituted proceedings in C. C. No. 1117 of 1998 on the file of the 13th Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, by preferring a private complaint under section 200 of the Criminal Procedure code, 1973, for an alleged offence committed by the petitioner herein under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. According to her, the petitioner issued a post-dated cheque on July 18, 1997 , for Rs. 20, 00, 000 and when the cheque was presented in the bank, it was returned with an endorsement "exceeds arrangements". THE respondent/complainant issued a statutory notice on December 11, 1997 , which the petitioner/accused received on December 13, 1997. According to her, since there was no payment even after efflux of the statutory period, she had preferred a private complaint.
(2.) THE petitioner/accused seeks to quash the proceedings on the ground that it is not as if he was not prepared to make payment, but he was prohibited from making any payment to the respondent-complainant by a mandate issued by the Income-tax Department, in other words, only due to the prohibition order issued by the statutory authority, he could not make the payment and, therefore, non-payment would not attract the provisions of section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.