A Zirakpur woman was sentenced to three-months of rigorous imprisonment (RI) for paying a city advocate with cheques that were dishonoured.
Judicial Magistrate Mohit Singh Dabad convicted Priya, a resident of Baltana, Zirakpur, in a complaint filed by advocate Saurabh Arora under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.
According to the complaint, Arora along with another advocate Ravi Inder Singh was engaged by Priya and her husband Manish Kumar to file a civil suit which is pending adjudication in the civil court.
The total professional fee was allegedly settled at ₹1.20 lakh. Court records show that ₹10,000 was transferred via Google Pay and ₹40,000 was paid in cash. The remaining ₹70,000 was to be cleared through post-dated cheques. One such cheque in July 15, 2021, for ₹50,000 was later disputed in the court case.
The cheque was returned unpaid on July 26 2021. A legal notice demanding payment was issued on August 3 2021, but the amount remained unpaid within the statutory period.
During trial, the accused Priya argued that she was not a party to the civil suit for which legal services were rendered and had no financial dealings with the complainant. She also denied signing the cheque and suggested it may have been handed over by her husband without her knowledge. To support her defence, a court official was examined to confirm that Priya was not named as a litigant in the underlying civil suit.
{{/usCountry}}During trial, the accused Priya argued that she was not a party to the civil suit for which legal services were rendered and had no financial dealings with the complainant. She also denied signing the cheque and suggested it may have been handed over by her husband without her knowledge. To support her defence, a court official was examined to confirm that Priya was not named as a litigant in the underlying civil suit.
{{/usCountry}}However, the court observed that the mere fact of not being a party to the civil case did not absolve her of liability under the cheque. The court noted that she had admitted her husband engaged the advocate and found it plausible that a spouse could issue a cheque towards professional fees incurred by the family.
“In the present case, since accused failed to examine any expert to substantiate his defence that the cheque has not been signed by her, this Court has compared the disputed signatures with the admitted signatures as per Section 73 of Indian Evidence Act and found that the signatures on the cheque are of the accused person,” the court observed.
Relying on Sections 118 and 139 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, the court observed that once execution of the cheque is established, the burden shifts to the accused to rebut the presumption of legally enforceable debt.
Priya was sentenced to three months’ RI. The court declined her plea for probation, noting the rising incidence of cheque dishonour cases.
She was also directed to pay ₹50,000 as compensation, equivalent to the cheque amount. The court recorded that she was convicted in another connected cheque case on the same day, with sentences ordered to run concurrently. Her sentence was meanwhile suspended for 30 days by the court to enable her to file an appeal.