Madras High Court issues directions for speedy disposal of cheque bounce cases

The Madras High Court has issued a slew of directions to the trial courts for the speedy disposal of cheque bounce cases after finding that cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments (NI) Act of 1881 had been pending for years.

The Madras High Court has issued a slew of directions to the trial courts for the speedy disposal of cheque bounce cases after finding that cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments (NI) Act of 1881 had been pending for years before the Judicial Magistrates due to various reasons.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh issued the directions after observing that the very purpose of the introduction of Chapter XVII (dealing with levy of penalties for dishonour of cheques) of the NI Act would be defeated on account of the delay involved in the disposal of such matters by the Magistrates.

The judge recalled the Supreme Court to have found 33.44 lakh cheque bounce cases pending in the country as of April 13, 2022, and as many as 7.37 lakh cases having been filed in just over five months. The NI Act cases contributed to 8.81% of the total criminal cases pending in the courts as of November 8, 2021.

Despite several directives issued in the past by the top court for the speedy disposal of those cases, “this court has found, time and again, that there is a considerable slip between the law as declared and the law that is practically administered day-to-day in the Magistrate Courts,” the judge lamented.

Stating that the lack of an effective oversight mechanism had resulted in a situation where the directions of the Supreme Court have largely remained “paper directives,” Justice Venkatesh issued a slew of directions to the Magistrates “to remedy this unfortunate state of affairs.”

The judge ordered that the Magistrates must “strictly avoid” the practice of receiving NI Act complaints and adjourning them for long periods “under the pretext of ‘check and call’ procedure.” He also said, the complaints must be scrutinised within a maximum of seven working days.

Justice Venkatesh also went on to issue elaborate directions with respect to the procedures to be followed by the Magistrates while issuing summons, ordering interim compensation, insisting on appearance of the accused and conducting trial. He ordered that the directions would come into force from March 3, 2025.