Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Vishwakalyan Multistate Credit Co Op ... vs Oneup Entertainment Private Limited on 21 August, 2023
Bench: Abhay S. Oka, Pankaj Mithal
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.2484 OF 2023
(Arising out of S.L.P.(Crl.) No.6318 of 2023)
VISHWAKALYAN MULTISTATE CREDIT CO OP
SOCIETY LTD. ... APPELLANT(S)
VS.
ONEUP ENTERTAINMENT PRIVATE LIMITED ... RESPONDENT(S)
O R D E R
Leave granted.
Heard the learned counsel appearing for the appellant. Despite service, no one has entered appearance on behalf of the respondent.
The appellant is the complainant in a complaint filed under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (for short "the NI Act"). On 26 th June, 2021, the Judicial Magistrate issued process on the complaint. By the impugned judgment, the High Court has held that as the respondent was having its office outside the jurisdiction of the Court of the learned Magistrate, it was necessary for the learned Magistrate to hold an inquiry under Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Signature Not Verified Procedure, 1973 (for short "the CRPC"). In paragraph 15 Digitally signed by Anita Malhotra Date: 2023.08.23 16:58:28 IST of the impugned judgment, the High Court held that for Reason: non-compliance with the mandate of Section 202 of the 1 CRPC, the order issuing process is illegal. Therefore, the High Court has proceeded to set aside the order issuing process. However, no further direction was issued by the High Court to the learned Judicial Magistrate to hold an inquiry under Section 202 of the CRPC.
We may note here that as far as complaints under Section 138 of the NI Act are concerned, this Court in Suo Motu Writ Petition (Criminal)No.2 of 2020 in the case of "In Re : Expeditious Trial of Cases Under Section 138 of N.I.Act, 18811" has laid down the guidelines. In clause (3) of paragraph 24 of the said decision, the Constitution Bench has directed as under:
"3) For the conduct of inquiry under Section 202 of the Code, evidence of witnesses on behalf of the complainant shall be permitted to be taken on affidavit. In suitable cases, the Magistrate can restrict the inquiry to examination of documents without insisting for examination of witnesses."
We, therefore, modify the impugned judgment and direct the Trial Court to proceed from the stage of Section 202 of the CRPC. While doing so, the learned Magistrate will be guided by the direction issued by the Constitution Bench which is reproduced above.
1. 2021 SCC OnLine SC 325.
2 With the above modification, the appeal is partly allowed.
The inquiry under Section 202 of the CRPC shall be conducted as expeditiously as possible and in any event within a period of one month from the date on which a copy of the order is received by the Trial Court.
..........................J. (ABHAY S.OKA) ..........................J. (PANKAJ MITHAL) NEW DELHI;
August 21, 2023.
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ITEM NO.46 COURT NO.11 SECTION II-A
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 6318/2023
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 22-02-2023 in CRWP No. 1416/2021 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Bench at Aurangabad) VISHWAKALYAN MULTISTATE CREDIT CO OP SOCIETY LTD. Petitioner(s) VERSUS ONEUP ENTERTAINMENT PRIVATE LIMITED Respondent(s) (FOR ADMISSION and I.R.) Date : 21-08-2023 This petition was called on for hearing today. CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ABHAY S. OKA HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PANKAJ MITHAL For Petitioner(s) Mr. Shashibhushan P. Adgaonkar, AOR Mr. Omkar Jayant Deshpande, Adv. Mr. Rana Sandeep Bussa, Adv. Mr. Col. Amit Kumar, Adv.
Mrs. Pradnya S Adgaonkar, Adv.
For Respondent(s) UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R Leave granted.
The appeal is partly allowed in terms of the signed order.
Pending application, if any, also stands disposed of.
(ANITA MALHOTRA) (AVGV RAMU)
AR-CUM-PS COURT MASTER
(Signed order is placed on the file.) 4