J MALA Vs. MODERN CARGO SERVICES PVT LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner who is the accused in C.C.No.13554 of 2002 on the file of the Court of XIII Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai has filed this Criminal Original Petition praying to quash the said proceeding.

(2.) Tracing the history of the case, what comes to be known is that the respondent herein filed a private complaint against the petitioner herein for the offence under Section 138 of N.I. Act and the same has been taken on file by the XIII Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai. Now the petitioner herein has come forward to file the above Criminal original Petition praying to quash the said proceeding on grounds that as per proviso (b) to Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act, the payee, the respondent herein, has to make a demand for the payment of the cheque amount in writing and on failure to pay the cheque amount within 15 days from the date of receipt of such demand, an offence under Section 138 of N.I.Act is made out; that in the present case, the respondent-complainant issued a lawyer notice dated 26.8.2002 and claimed action without specific demand with respect to payment of the cheque amount, which is extracted below:

(3.) The respondent/complainant has opposed the said Criminal Original Petition filed by the petitioner/accused by filing a counter thereby submitting that a full reading of the notice issued by the complainant dated 26.8.2002 would disclose the entire transaction including the factum of dishonour of three cheques; that the notice also contains the particulars such as the cheque number, date of cheque, amount of the cheques unambiguously and thus the petitioner/accused has been thoroughly apprised of all details relating to the dishonour of the three cheques; that it is relevant to point out that the petitioner/accused has admitted the receipt of the notice in their reply notice dated 2.9.2002 would show that the petitioner/accused is well-aware of the dishonour of her three cheques.