DISHONOUR OF CHEQUE NOT AN “OFFENCE AGAINST SOCIETY” : PUNJAB AND HARYANA HC
DISHONOUR OF CHEQUE NOT AN “OFFENCE AGAINST SOCIETY” : PUNJAB AND HARYANA HC
The Punjab and Haryana High Court as of late ruled that the offense of dishonour of a cheque isn’t an offence against society which a denounced is entitled to have relieving components considered in sentencing (Rakesh Kumar v. Jasbir Singh and another).
A Single-Bench of Equity Sudhir Mittal underscored that the offense of cheque bouncing beneath Section 138 of the ‘Negotiable Instruments Act’ was quasi-criminal in nature. Additionally, Section 147 of the Act indeed expressed that the offense is compoundable.
Within the case some time recently the High Court, the revision-petitioner (the denounced) was indicted and sentenced to experience thorough detainment for two a long time. Furthermore, he was coordinated to pay emolument break even with to the sum shamed, alongside 9% intrigued per annum, from the date of cheque till the judgment date.
The request against the judgment of conviction was expelled driving to the recording of an amendment appeal some time recently the High Court. When the amendment petition was listened, the direct for the solicitor limited his supplication to a lessening within the quantum of sentence. Portraying the applicant as a “poor person”, it was contended that the charged was subjected to an extended trial of nearly ten a long time. Advance, he had experienced a genuine sentence of a small more than a year. The prosecution restricted the plea, encouraging the Court to affirm the total sentence forced on the petitioner.
Ruling that the address of sentencing was primarily a matter of watchfulness within the nonappearance of statutory arrangements overseeing the same, Justice Mittal found that the sentence forced was gathered to be proportionate to the wrongdoing committed.
The sentence was too to be in understanding with the standards of discouragement, reprisal or reclamation, with moderating and exasperating circumstances to be figured in, he observed.
The revisions to the arrangements of the important law uncovered the administrative aim of speeding up the trial and making the sentence obstruction when it comes to cheque bouncing, it was noted. “Provisions embedded for instilling more noteworthy confidence in managing an account exchanges required more teeth so that cases including shame of cheques diminished. It is, hence, clear that discouragement and reclamation are the standards to be kept in intellect for sentencing,” Justice Mittal ruled.
The court opined that the most extreme sentence of 2 a long time forced on the applicant was self-assertive, given the quasi-criminal nature of the offense and the truth that the cheque sum was as it were Rs 4 lakhs. “Mitigating circumstances contended by direct for the solicitor such as the applicant being a destitute individual and having experienced an extended trial of nearly 10 a long time, moreover exist“, the Court said. Therefore, the amendment petitioner’s prayer for a diminishment in jail time was acknowledged and the sentence was diminished to the period as of now undergone.
– Aditi Das
DISHONOUR OF CHEQUE NOT AN “OFFENCE AGAINST SOCIETY” : PUNJAB AND HARYANA HC
