ANAND AGROS LIMITED Vs. V YADAIAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C. to quash proceedings in Calender Case No.597 of 2008 on the file of the II Additional Metropolitan Magistrate filed under Section 138 N.I. Act for bouncing of two cheques claiming that in connection with business affairs under job work agreement, the petitioner/accused issued the two cheques; one for Rs. 2.00 lakhs and another for Rs. 1.00 lakh drawn on Lakshmi Vilas Limited, Kothapet Branch, Ranga Reddy District in favour of the 1st respondent/complainant and after the expiry of the job work agreement with the 1st respondent, the petitioner entered into another job work agreement with a third party and the petitioner instructed the bank to stop the payment of those cheques under intimation to the respondent No.1 and subsequently, a notice dt. 11.8.2006 was issued by the 1st respondent to the petitioner and the petitioner gave reply to it on 24.8.2006 and after the receipt of the notice, the petitioner approached the learned II Additional Chief Judge, City Civil Court at Hyderabad and filed O.P.No. 1428 of 2006 under Section 9 of the Arbitration Act, 1996 and obtained interim injunction through order dt. 15.11.2006, preventing the 1st respondent from proceeding with the presentation of the cheques for encashing them before the bank for a period of three months subject to condition that the dispute should be referred to an Arbitrator and on 28.8.2007 the O.P. was allowed, whereas on 27.9.2006, the 1st respondent filed private complaint before the learned II Additional Metropolitan Magistrate, Ranga Reddy against the petitioner for the offence punishable under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

(2.) The main contention of the Learned Counsel for the petitioner is that the 1st respondent filed the private complaint while the interim injunction granted by the learned II Additional Chief Judge, City Civil Court, Hyderabad in O.P.No. 1428 of 2006 was in force and as the O.P. was allowed in favour of the petitioner and the matter was referred to the arbitrator, the complaint filed for the offence punishable under Section 138 N.I. Act is not maintainable and therefore the complaint is liable to be quashed.

(3.) For proper appreciation of the case on hand, it is necessary to extract Section 138 N.I. Act, which reads as under: