Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 (extract)

Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 (extract)

Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, which has been promulgated by the President on 15 June 2015, and which has immediately come into force with effect from 15 June 2015.

 

In the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, Firstly a new sub-section (2) has been inserted in Section 142, which now lays down as under:

"142 (2) The offence under section 138 shall be inquired into and tried only by a court within whose local jurisdiction,—

(a) if the cheque is delivered for collection through an account, the branch of the bank where the payee or holder in due course, as the case may be, maintains the account, is situated; or

(b) if the cheque is presented for payment by the payee or holder in due course otherwise through an account, the branch of the drawee bank where the drawer maintains the account, is situated.

Explanation.—For the purposes of clause (a), where a cheque is delivered for collection at any branch of the bank of the payee or holder in due course, then, the cheque shall be deemed to have been delivered to the branch of the bank in which the payee or holder in due course, as the case may be, maintains the account."

Secondly, a new Section 142A has been inserted in the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, has been inserted, which lays down as under:

"142A. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 or any judgment, decree, order or directions of any court, all cases arising out of section 138 which were pending in any court, whether filed before it, or transferred to it, before the commencement of the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 shall be transferred to the court having jurisdiction under sub-section (2) of section 142 as if that sub-section had been in force at all material times.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (2) of section 142 or sub-section (1), where the payee or the holder in due course, as the case may be, has filed a complaint against the drawer of a cheque in the court having jurisdiction under sub-section (2) of section 142 or the case has been transferred to that court under sub-section (1), and such complaint is pending in that court, all subsequent complaints arising out of section 138 against the same drawer shall be filed before the same court irrespective of whether those cheques were delivered for collection or presented for payment within the territorial jurisdiction of that court.

(3) If, on the date of the commencement of the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, more than one prosecution filed by the same payee or holder in due course, as the case may be, against the same drawer of cheques is pending before different courts, upon the said fact having been brought to the notice of the court, such court shall transfer the case to the court having jurisdiction under sub-section (2) of section 142 before which the first case was filed and is pending, as if that sub-section had been in force at all material times."

 

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Supreme Court judgment- Dashrath Roop singh Rathod v. State of Maharashtra, (2014) 9 SCC 129, and the above Bombay High Court judgment  Ramanbhai Mathurbhai Patel v. State of Maharashtra, (and, also, all other judgments) are now of no consequence since this Ordinance supersedes them.

 

 

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