MORE SC RULES ON BOUNCING CHEQUES M J Antony October 19, 2014 While disposing of a batch of cheque bounce appeals with a 14-year history, the Supreme Court last week set forth six more guidelines to speed up trials in such cases. In the past few months, the court had issued some twenty other rules to be followed by the trial courts and high courts, since thousands of criminal cases under the Negotiable Instruments Act are clogging the judicial system. The new batch of cases was led by an appeal from Gujarat, titled Giriraj Proteins Ltd vs D M Finance. In one case, the trial court took about six years to acquit the person accused of issuing a cheque without adequate balance in the bank account. The appeal took more than that period in the high court, which only remitted the matter to the trial court due to technical faults. The third appeal reached the Supreme Court two years ago. Litigation took more than a decade because the high court ordered fresh trial after several years on procedural technicalities. The Supreme Court remarked: To replay the whole laborious exercise after erasing the bulky records relating to earlier proceedings by bringing down all persons to the court once again would be sheer waste of time, energy and costs unless there is miscarriage of justice otherwiseCourts cannot overlook the realities and the serious impact on the pending cases in trial courts which are crammed with dockets, and how much that order would inflict hardship on many innocent persons.. The re-enactment of the whole labour might give the impression to the common man that law is more pedantic than pragmatic. Law is not an instrument to be used for inflicting sufferings on the people .
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:42:12 +0000
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