Complaints of dishonour of cheque (S. 138, N I Act)

A landlord in Thane hands over a month of rent receipts for a shop, takes the tenant’s cheque for the last instalment, and the cheque comes back from the bank with a slip saying “funds insufficient”. Nothing has been stolen and no one has been hurt, yet the tenant may go to prison. The law treats a bounced cheque as a crime, but only if the holder follows a strict timetable. Miss a date and the case dies. What are the dates, and how is the complaint drafted?

In two minutes

Dishonour of a cheque for insufficiency of funds is an offence under s.138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act 1881, punishable with imprisonment up to two years, or fine up to twice the cheque amount, or both, but only if the cheque was presented in time, a written demand notice was sent within thirty days of the bank’s information, and the drawer failed to pay within fifteen days of receipt.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Drafting, Pleading and Conveyancing – III on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.