MAHESH SAHAKARI PASTSANSTHA LTD Vs. GUNARAM ATUMAL TOLANI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this application the applicant/ complainant seeks leave to file appeal against the judgment of the judicial Magistrate First Class, Court No. 8, dhule, dated 4. 1. 2007 in STCC No. 2395 of 2002, acquitting the respondent/accused for offence punishable under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

(2.) The trial Court had acquitted the respondent/accused principally on the ground that the complainant himself had admitted in his evidence that the cheques alleged to have been issued by the accused had been issued by way of security. The aforesaid cheques, therefore, had not been issued by the accused towards the discharge or for the payment of any debt or liability. The trial Court has placed reliance on the judgments of the learned Single Judge of this Court in Goa Handicrafts, Rural and small Scale Industries Development Corporation Vs. M/s Samudra Ropes Put. Ltd. and ors, 2006 1 BCR(Cri) 157 and Bombay High Court on Dishonour of cheques page 90. The learned Single Judge of this Court in the aforesaid judgment had observed that the cheque had been issued by the accused for the purpose of keeping it in safe custody and had not been issued for the purposes of encashment. The aforesaid cheque had been tendered as a security and, therefore, the dishonour of such cheque would not entail penal liability. The high Court, therefore, declined to interfere with the acquittal order.