SC: High Courts Should be Careful while Granting Relief in Plea for Quashing of Complaint

Shivani Thakur

Published on: April 27, 2022 20:24 IST

The Supreme Court observed that High Courts should exercise caution when granting the Relief of Quashing a complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act during the pre-trial stage.

Whether the summons and Trial Notice should have been Quashed based on Factual Defences’, the question raised in the Appeal before the Supreme Court.

In this Case, the Delhi High Court denied an Application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for the Quashing of a Summons issued against the Appellant under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.

The Appellant argued that the Criminal Process could not have been issued unless the essential ingredients for the Offence were satisfied, namely that the dishonoured cheque received by the complainant was against a ‘legally enforceable debt or liability’.

The Legal Presumption that the cheque was issued to discharge Liability must also be given due weightage. In a Case the approach of the Court should be careful so as not to prematurely end the Case by disregarding the Legal presumption supporting the complaint.

The Court said that if this is permitted, the accused may gain an unfair advantage in the Criminal Process. Also, because of the Legal Presumption, when the cheque and signature are not disputed by the Appellant, the balance of convenience is in favour of the complainant at this stage, as the Accused will have ample opportunity to present Defence Evidence during the Trial to rebut the presumption.

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