Pawan Dhanpatrai Malhotra Vs Mahender Khari (Delhi High Court)
Summary: The Delhi High Court considered whether a single complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 could be maintained in respect of more than three dishonoured cheques where a common legal notice of demand had been issued.
The petitioner challenged the order dated 05.04.2024 passed by the Principal District & Sessions Judge, South District, Saket Courts, New Delhi, dismissing his criminal revision petition. The revision had challenged the order dated 16.04.2022 of the learned MM-01, South District, New Delhi, whereby the petitioner’s application under Section 219 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 was dismissed.
The underlying complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act concerned four cheques dated 15.07.2019, 15.08.2019, 15.09.2019 and 15.10.2019. Although the cheques bore different dates, the respondent had filed a single/combined complaint after issuing a single/combined legal notice of demand dated 06.11.2019.
The petitioner contended that Section 219 of the Code of Criminal Procedure permitted consolidation of not more than three offences of the same kind committed within twelve months. Relying upon Vani Agro Enterprises v. State of Gujarat & Anr. and Gaurav Mittal v. State of NCT of Delhi, it was argued that issuance of a common notice could not overcome the statutory restriction merely because the cheques were presented through a single complaint.
