NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has appointed former Delhi High Court judge Justice Najmi Waziri as mediator to resolve a 15-year-old cheque-dishonour dispute involving Bollywood actor Rajpal Yadav.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma directed Justice Waziri to submit a mediation report within eight weeks. It said the matter would be heard on merits if the parties fail to reach a settlement.
The order was passed on Yadav’s petition seeking quashing of the cheque-bounce proceedings and recall of the non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued against him.
The legal dispute stems from a 2010 financial agreement where Yadav received Rs 5 crore from M/s Murli Projects Pvt Ltd to finance his directorial debut movie, 'Ata Pata Laapata', starring himself.
Yadav had taken the money as loan for production with a promise to repay after film release. But the film turned out to be a disaster, causing huge losses.
To settle the dues, the complainant alleged that in 2013, Yadav tendered seven cheques of Rs 1.05 crore each towards settlement of financial assistance of Rs 5 crore for film, totalling Rs 7.35 crore.
All cheques allegedly bounced due to lack of funds, prompting M/s Murli Projects to file cheque bounce cases under Section 138 of the NI Act.
In April 2018, a Delhi court convicted Yadav in all the seven cases and sentenced him to six months' jail in each case, concurrently, and ordered compensation.
The conviction was upheld by the Delhi HC, forcing Yadav to move the Supreme Court, which stayed his jail term in February 2019 after noting part payment.
The actor had already undergone 10 days' imprisonment in Tihar in December 2013 after the Delhi HC had ordered his detention for non-payment.