GURMIT KAUR Vs. U.T. CHANDIGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER Gurmit Kaur, apprehending her arrest in pursuance of non-bailable warrant issued by the Court of Additional Metropolitan Judicial Magistrate, Court No. 23, Jaipur, City Jaipur, in complaint No. 192 of 2005 under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'), titled ICICI Bank v. Gurmit Kaur, has filed this petition for bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for transitional period, so that she can appear before the concerned Court and seek her remedy there.

(2.) PETITIONER , who is 68 years old widow, is residing in Sector 29, Chandigarh. In the petition, it has been stated that when her husband was seriously sick, she raised a personal loan of Rs. one lac from ICICI Bank, Chandigarh, for setting up a small stitching business. Out of the said loan, she had already returned a sum of Rs. 35,000/- to Rs. 40,000/- to the bank. However, due to the death of her husband, she defaulted in payment of a few instalments. On the basis of the cheque issued by the petitioner, the ICICI Bank filed a complaint under Section 138 of the Act at Jaipur, though no transaction took place at Jaipur and the Court at Jaipur has no jurisdiction in the matter. It has been further stated that in the said complaint, the petitioner did not receive any notice or summon of the Court. However, few days back, some police persons from Police Station Sector 17, Chandigarh visited her house and informed her relations that they had come to arrest the petitioner, as she has been summoned by non-bailable warrants in the aforesaid complaint.

(3.) COUNSEL for the petitioner while relying upon a Full Bench judgment of the Calcutta High Court in Mahesh Kumar Sarda alias Maheswari v. Union of India, 2000(4) RCR(Criminal) 129 and a Division Bench judgment of the Delhi High Court in Capt. Satish Kumar Sharma v. Delhi Administration and others, 1991 Criminal Law Journal 950(1) has submitted that keeping in view the facts and circumstances of a case, the High Court can entertain an application for grant of anticipatory bail for transitional period in respect of an offence committed outside its jurisdiction, if the applicant is going to be arrested in its jurisdiction.