UMA RANI Vs. SANJEEV VAID

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has filed the present petition for quashing of complaint No. 279 of 2021, titled "Sanjeev Vaid Vs Smt. Uma Rani", pending before the Court of the learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Paonta Sahib (learned Trial Court). (The parties shall hereinafter be referred to in the same manner as they were arrayed before the learned trial Court for convenience.)

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts giving rise to the present petition are that the complainant filed a complaint against the petitioner-accused for the commission of an offence punishable under Sec. 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (NI Act). It was asserted that the accused and the complainant were known to each other. The accused required money for her domestic purposes, so she borrowed an amount of Rs.8,00,000.00 from the complainant in June 2019. The accused promised to repay Rs.75,000.00 in cash and the balance amount through cheque. She issued post-dated cheque dtd. 19/2/2021 for Rs.7,25,000.00 drawn on Oriental Bank of Commerce, Branch Bhamian Khurd, Mundian Kalan, Ludhiana, Punjab, to discharge her legal liability. The accused failed to repay the money; hence, the complainant presented the cheque to his bank, Punjab National Bank, from where it was sent to the bank of the accused. The bank of the accused dishonoured the cheque with an endorsement 'Insufficient Funds'. The complainant served a notice upon the accused asking her to repay the amount within 15 days from the date of the receipt of the notice. The accused refused to receive the demand notice. She failed to repay the amount. Hence, a complaint was filed before the learned Trial Court for taking action, as per the law.

(3.) Learned Trial Court found sufficient reasons to proceed against the accused and ordered the issuance of the summons.