Skip to main content

Dishonoured Cheque offence even if cheque issued for sale consideration not disclosed in sale deed

In Bhawish Chand Sharma v. Bawa Singh, the case of the complainant was that he had sold a property to the accused for an agreed sale consideration of Rs. 20 lakhs. The accused had paid Rs.15 lakhs in cash and for the balance consideration, the cheque was issued. On presentment, the cheque got dishonoured, and the complaint was filed when the accused failed to discharge the liability after the statutory notice.

The accused admitted that the sale consideration was Rs.20 lakhs, and stated that he had paid Rs.16 lakhs in cash. He put forth a defence that he had issued cheques for Rs.4 lakhs, but those cheques were returned by the complainant stating that he had no bank account. The accused further stated that he had paid the balance in cash and that a cheque for Rs.5 lakhs without writing the name of payee was handed over to the broker as security for discharging certain electricity dues on the property. According to the accused, that cheque was misutilized by the complainant to cause the dishonour.

The trial court noted that even though the complainant stated the sale consideration to be Rs.20 lakhs, the value reflected in the sale deed was just Rs.4 lakhs. On this count, and also by accepting the version of the accused, the trial court acquitted the accused.

On appeal the High Court held that the failure to disclose full sale consideration will not invalidate the transaction underlying the cheque, though it may attract other legal penalties and that offence of dishonour of cheque under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act is attracted even if the cheque was issued in respect of sale consideration which was not disclosed in the sale deed. 

Comments

Most viewed this month

Partition proceedings are vitiated even if single co-sharer is not made party or is not served in accordance with law

Cause Title :  Bhagwant Singh vs  Financial Commissioner (Appeals) Punjab, Chandigarh,  CWP-2132-2018 (O&M), High Court Of Punjab & Haryana At Chandigarh Date of Judgment/Order : 31.08.2022 Corum : Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sudhir Mittal Background A large parcel of land was owned by the Nagar Panchayat. Thereafter, some of the co-sharers sold their shares to third parties including the petitioners herein. On 22.11.1995, respondents No.3 to 5 filed an application for partition of the land. The petitioners were not impleaded as parties.  On completion of proceedings, sanad was issued on 28.08.1996. Vide two separate sale deeds dated 28.05.2008 respondents No.3 and 5 sold some portion in favour of respondent No.6 and 7. These respondents sought implementation of the sanad resulting in issuance of warrants of possession dated 05.06.2008. Allegedly, it was then that the petitioners realized that joint land had been partitioned and that proceedings h...

Power of Attorney holder can also file cheque bounce cases: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has held that a criminal complaint in a cheque bounce case can be filed and pursued by a person who holds a power of attorney (PoA) on behalf of the complainant. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam gave the "authoritative" pronouncement on the issue, referred to it by a division bench in view of conflicting judgements of some high courts and the apex court. "We are of the view that the power of attorney holder may be allowed to file, appear and depose for the purpose of issue of process for the offence punishable under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (which deals with cheque bounce cases)," the bench, also comprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Ranjan Gogoi, said. The bench, in its judgement, said, "...we clarify the position and answer the questions in the following manner: "Filing of complaint petition under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act through PoA holder is perfectly legal...

Christian who reconverts as Hindu SC will get quota benefits

Amid the controversy over “ghar wapsi”, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a person who “reconverts” from Christianity to Hinduism shall be entitled to reservation benefits if his forefathers belonged to a Scheduled Caste and the community accepts him after “reconversion”. Citing articles by B R Ambedkar and James Massey, and reports by Mandal Commission and Chinappa Commission, the court said: “There has been detailed study to indicate the Scheduled Caste persons belonging to Hindu religion, who had embraced Christianity with some kind of hope or aspiration, have remained socially, educationally and economically backward.” The bench of Justices Dipak Misra and V Gopala Gowda held that a person shall not be deprived of reservation benefits if he decides to “reconvert” to Hinduism and adopts the caste that his forefathers originally belonged to just because he was born to Christian parents or has a Christian spouse. Expanding the scope of a previous Constitution benc...