NI Act | Joint Petition In Respect Of Different Causes Of Action Not Maintainable: J&K&L High Court

"The instant petition is not otherwise maintainable as through the medium of instant petition, the petitioner has challenged as many as four complaints and four separate orders directing issuance of process against him by the trial court. A joint petition in respect of different causes of action is not maintainable. On this ground also, the petition deserves to be dismissed."

Of the four complaints, three were pending before the Court of Judicial Magistrate at Bandipora and one was pending before the Court of Additional Mobile Magistrate.

The Petitioner-accused contended that the trial Magistrate had jointly tried all the four complaints and, as such, the procedure adopted was not in accordance with the law. It was also contended that the preliminary statements in all the four complaints have not been recorded on oath, which is a requirement of law. It was also argued that statutory notices were not served upon the Petitioner.

Lastly, it was argued that there was a commercial transaction between the parties and, as such, the criminal proceedings could not have been initiated by the respondent.

The Court rejected all the above contentions on the following grounds:

-The petitioner did not place on record any order passed by the trial Magistrate whereby all the four complaints were directed to be tried jointly.

-The question whether the statutory notices of demand were actually served upon the petitioner is a triable issue and a defence available to the petitioner which could not have been gone into by the trial Magistrate at the time of taking cognizance of the complaint and issuance of process against the petitioner.

-In most of the cheque bounce complaints, the basis is invariably a commercial transaction and if submission of the petitioner is accepted, then the provisions contained in Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act would become redundant.

In view of the above, the quashing petition was dismissed.