MADURAI: Expressing concern over the huge pendency of cheque bounce cases in lower courts across the state, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court issued a series of directions to remedy the situation. The court also directed all principal district judges in the state to transmit the directions to all judicial magistrates in their jurisdiction for strict compliance.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh passed the order on a batch of petitions filed by some individuals seeking to quash criminal proceedings initiated against them for dishonour of cheques. Noting that the proceedings were pending before the magistrate for nearly three years, the judge observed that cases under Section 138 (dishonouring a cheque) of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, are clogging the magistrate courts for years on account of several reasons. This would defeat the very purpose of the introduction of Chapter XVII of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, he added.
The apex court has also pointed out that as on April 13, 2022, this pendency has gone up to 33.44 lakh, which is an increase of 7.37 lakh cases in just over five months. As per the data available on November 8, 2021, the NI Act cases contribute to 8.81% of the total criminal cases pending in the courts. Further, 11.82% of the total criminal cases that are stagnating are due to appearance or service-related issues in NI Act cases, the judge noted.
Though the Supreme Court, from time to time, has issued several directions to address the problem, the said directions remained paper directives due to the lack of effective oversight mechanisms, Justice Venkatesh said.
Moreover, though the top court had specifically told the high court to issue practice directions in the matter , no steps have been taken till now, he added and gave a series of directions for each stage of NI Act proceedings, such as entertaining complaints, issuance of process, summons, interim compensation, appearance of the accused, and finally the trial.
The practice of receiving complaints and adjourning the same for long periods under the pretext of 'check and call' should be strictly avoided. For notice of appearance, a short date, no later than four weeks must be fixed, the judge added.
On the administrative side, the high court may explore the possibility of extending the N-STEP facility for service of summons, which is currently used for civil cases to NI Act cases, he suggested.