NAGENDRA PRASAD Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the parties.

(2.) This Criminal Miscellaneous Petition has been filed invoking the jurisdiction of this Court under Sec. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure with a prayer to quash the entire criminal proceedings of Complaint Case No.1036 of 2022 as well as the cognizance order dtd. 12/12/2022 passed by learned Judicial Magistrate-1st Class, Koderma whereby and where under the learned Magistrate found prima facie case for the offence punishable under Sec. 138 of the N.I. Act against the petitioner which is now pending in the court of learned Judicial Magistrate-1st Class, Koderma.

(3.) The brief facts of the case is that the petitioner handed over cheques of HDFC Bank to the complainant in respect of the amount payable to him towards the arrears of labour charges, stone chips which were invested by the complainant for establishment of a stone crusher. The cheques were dtd. 8/5/2022. The complainant presented the two cheques on 9/5/2022. The same were dishonoured and the cheque return memo was received by the complainant on 18/5/2022 for insufficiency of funds. The complainant demanded the cheque amount on 19/5/2022 from the petitioner and also issued a notice on 1/6/2022 which was received by the petitioner on 18/6/2022 but he did not respond to the notice. Hence, the complaint was filed on 5/7/2022. On the basis of the same, the learned Magistrate found prima facie case against the petitioners for the offence punishable under Sec. 138 of the N.I. Act.