RAM SARUP Vs. HARDEO PRASAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application for revision under Section 25, Provincial Small Causes Courts Act, has been referred for decision to a Bench and the question to be determined is the liability of the defendant-appellant Ram Sarup in respect of a cheque drawn by him on the Allahabad Bank Limited on the 5 June 1926, and made payable to "Ram Saran or order." The amount of the cheque was Rs. 500.

(2.) On the 10 June 1926 the cheque was presented for payment and was dishonoured. It was proved at the trial that the drawer had no founds at credit with the Bank and that he had made no arrangement for an overdraft. Payment was refused by the Bank on the ground that it had not been arranged for. On 28th September 1926 the cheque was again presented for payment and again dishonoured on two grounds: (1) that payment had not been arranged for by the drawer and (2) that the endorsement of the payee was wanting. It is not clear who presented the cheque on this second occasion. Obviously it was some person other than the payee. There was the evidence of a clerk of the Bank that it was presented by Hardeo Prasad, the plaintiff in this suit, but the Judge disbelieved, it. His finding is that Hardeo Prasad did not take the cheque to the Bank and had no notice of dishonour. A third presentation was made on 6 October 1926, on behalf of the Beopar Sahaik Bank to which the cheque had been endorsed the previous day by Hardeo Prasad. This time payment was refused on the ground that it had been stopped by the drawer.

(3.) As regards the stopping of payment the Court below did not believe the statement of the drawer or of the Bank Clerk, that the order to stop had been received on the 10 June 1926 and this is clearly right, for the refusal of the Bank to pay either on the 10 June or the 28 September was not based upon any stop order. And on the 10 June at any rate such an order would have been without meaning for the drawer had no funds at the Bank and had made no arrangement with the Bank for liquidation of the cheque.