Delhi District Court
Smt. Krishan Kumari vs State on 27 October, 2014
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IN THE COURT OF SHRI L.K. GAUR, SPECIAL JUDGE
P.C. ACT (CBI09), CENTRAL DISTRICT,
TIS HAZARI: DELHI
C.R. No.10/14
Smt. Krishan Kumari .......Revisionists
Versus
1. State
2. M/s Catmoos Retail Pvt. Ltd.
3. Mr. Ashwani Kumar Chawla
.......Respondents
ORDER
This is a revision petition filed challenging the order dated 04.09.2014 passed by the Ld. Trial Court whereby the complaint filed by the Revisionist under section 138 of Negotiable Instrument Act was ordered to be returned with the original documents.
2. The case involved issuance of two cheques issued by the Respondent No. 2 on behalf of the Respondent No. 1 of Rs. 6 lacs each dated 01.07.2013 and 02.07.2013 of Axis Bank Ltd., Vaishali, Ghaziabad, U.P. 2
3. The Ld. Trial Court made an observation in the impugned order that cheques in question were not dishonoured in the territorial jurisdiction of the Ld. Trial Court as the drawee bank i.e. Axis Bank, Vaishali, Ghaziabad Branch is not located within the territorial jurisdiction of the Court. The Ld. Trial Court relied on the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Dashrath Rupsingh Rathod v. State of Maharashtra & Anr., 2014[3] JCC[NI]
147.
4. I have heard the Ld. Counsel for the Revisionist and have gone through the record of the case. No one appeared on behalf of the Respondents despite being served by way of affixation.
5. During the submissions Ld. Counsel for the Revisionist pointed out that the cheques in this case are payable 'at par' and, therefore, they could be presented for payment at any of the Branches of the Axis Bank. The Revisionist herein had presented the said cheques at Axis Bank, Karol Bagh, New Delhi, which happened to be her Banker as well. The cheques were dishonoured and returned alongwith a memo issued by the Axis Bank, Karol Bagh, New Delhi itself and, therefore, since the cheques were dishonoured in the jurisdiction of the Ld. Trial Court, the Ld. Trial Court has the jurisdiction to entertain the Complaint of the Revisionist. He placed 3 reliance on a judgement of Hon'ble Bombay High Court Ramanbhai Mathurbhai Patel Vs. State of Maharashtra & Anr., Criminal Writ Petition No. 2362 of 2014 decided on 25.08.20914 wherein specifically the issue related to the cheques payable 'at par' at all branches of the drawee bank was dealt with.
6. 'Multicity cheques' or 'cheques payable at par' are different from the other cheques which are issued by the banks. Such cheques are treated as local cheques by each branch of the drawee bank. The objective of providing such facilities is to cut down the delay in the collection of payments from the drawee bank. I may reproduce here what had been stated in the Customers Service Guidelines issued by RBI1 with regard to the multicity cheques in the year 200607: "A.8. Delay in collection of outstation cheques - Need for issuance of Payable at par / Multicity cheques As you are aware, there have been a number of complaints in the recent past from customers and the members of public alike on deficiency in service relating to collection of outstation cheques. Complainants have been indicating that the time taken for collection ranges from 7 days to one month. The average time is as high as 15 days. Publishing the cheque 1http://www.rbi.org.in/commonman/english/Scripts/CustomerServiceGuideline s.aspx#dela8 4 collection and compensation policy has, no doubt, reduced the number of complaints received and brought transparency in service, but the service level as such has not improved. Now that nearly 35,000 bank branches are under Core Banking Solution (CBS), there is an urgent need for leveraging this CBS technology and bring improvements in cheque collection service.
2. A few banks with core banking solution have started providing "payable at par"/ "Multicity" cheque issuance facility to select customers as a value added service. The cheque books issued to such customers are slightly different. The cheque leaves bear the narration "payable at par at all branches" and the MICR code line of the cheques have transaction codes 29 (Current A/c), 30 (Savings Bank A/c) and 31 (Cash Credit A/c) to facilitate processing of such cheques as local cheques at the MICR cheque processing centres. CBS is used for signature verification and balance verification. For the purpose of funding the transactions, RTGS and NEFT are used effectively.
3. It is suggested that such services should be made available by all the banks and should be made available to all the eligible and requesting customers. While designating a branch as CBS branch, it should be ensured that such branches are equipped to process these "payable at par"/ "Multicity cheques". If the banking system offers this service in a big way, it would not only help banks provide better customer service and minimize complaints, but also help reducing the transaction cost in payment services in the long run. 5
7. I may also reproduce here from the information available on the Website of the Axis Bank1 itself with regard to the 'at par' payments. It is stated thereon : We issue At Par payable cheque book to our Current Account customers. At Par facility enables you to maintain only one Account and issue cheques that would be payable at any Axis Bank location as a local cheque. Further each cheque, if needed, can be validated against an issue file before clearing the instrument to avoid fraudulent encashment. [ emphasis supplied]
8. I would also like to quote relevant para here from policy statement of SBI2 relating to multicity cheques, which explains the same thing with much more clarity: "POLICY ON MULTICITY (PAYABLE AT PART) CTS2010 STANDARD CHEQUES
2. General : Definition of Multicity cheque:
● MultiCity cheque (MCC): It is a cheque drawn by a customer of the bank in favoru of a person / entity named therein and is payable at par at all branches of the bank, subject to detailed terms and conditions as under.
● The payee can present the cheque directly at any 1http://www.axisbank.com/businessbanking/cashmanagement services/paymentsolutions/paymentsolutions.aspx 2 https://www.sbi.co.in/webfiles/uploads/files/1387169515676_POLICY_ON_MULTI_CITY _CHEQUE.pdf 6 of our Core Banking branch or in clearing through his bank.
● In case of Multi City Cheque, the term drawee would connote any branch of the Bank in India.
● MCCs may be issued 'bearer" or "order" as detailed hereunder." [ emphasis supplied]
9. Therefore, the cheques issued in this case "payable at part at all branches of Axis Bank Ltd. in India" would mean that in case of these cheques the term 'Drawee' would connote any branch of the bank in India.
10. The conclusion, therefore, would be that for these cheques the drawee Branch would be the Branch wherever these cheques were presented for payment and not necessarily Vaishali, Ghaziabad Branch of this Bank where apparently this account was opened. I may also add here that in such cases all branches of the bank operate as one single unit and the location of a particular branch in all such cases becomes immaterial.
11. One may also look at the judgement of Hon'ble Bombay High Court adverted to by the Ld. counsel to know as to how this issue had been dealt with. In the said judgement there was reference made to para 17 of the judgement of Hon'ble Supreme Court in Dashrath Rupsingh Rathod Vs. State of Maharashtra & Ans. (supra) wherein it was noted that creditor could 7 insist that the cheques in question be made payable at a place of the creditor's convenience. By issuance of such a cheque which is payable at all branches that convenience is extended to the creditor whereby the creditor can approach the nearest available branch to get the cheque cleared. The relevant part of the said judgement read as under: "7. One may also refer to para 17 of the said judgment where the Hon'ble Supreme Court has said as under:
"17. ....In our discernment, it is also now manifest that trades and businessmen have become reckless and incautious in extending credit where they would heretofore have been extremely hesitant, solely because of the availability of redress by way of criminal proceedings. It is always open to the creditor to insist that the cheques in question be made payable at a place of the creditor;s convenience(emphasis supplied.)"
8. It is thus clear that in the present case by issuing cheques payable at all branches, the drawer of the cheques had given an option to the banker of payee to get the cheques cleared from the nearest available branch of bank of the drawer. It, therefore, follows that the cheues have been dishonoured within the territorial jurisdiction of Court of Metropolitan Magistrae at Kurla. In view of judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of Darshrath v. State of Maharashtra cited (supra), the learned Metropolitan Magistrate of Kurla Court has jurisdiction to entertain and decide the complaint in question."
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12. In view of above discussion and in view of the fact that the cheques herein were to be treated as local cheques as having been issued by the Branch where they were presented for payment as these cheques were payable at par at all branches of Axis Bank Ltd. in India. Therefore, in my opinion the branch where the cheques were presented for payment for all practical purposes could be considered as the 'drawee branch' and since the cheque was dishonoured at Axis Bank Ltd., Karol Bagh Branch, the Ld. Trial Court had the jurisdiction to entertain the complaint of the Revisionist . I am accordingly, setting aside the impugned order. Let the Ld. Trial Court resume the trial from the stage it was left.
13. The trial court record be sent back along with the copy of this order. File be consigned to the record room.
Announced in the Open Court ( L. K. GAUR )
on 27 of October, 2014
th
Special Judge, P.C. Act
(CBI09), Central District,
Delhi.
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