Delhi High Court
Khanna Hotel P. Ltd. vs State (Govt. Of Nct) Of Delhi on 8 July, 2003
Equivalent citations: 2004CRILJ180, 2004 CRI. L. J. 180, (2003) 12 ALLINDCAS 216 (DEL), (2004) 2 ALLCRILR 88, (2003) 70 DRJ 565, (2003) 4 CRIMES 198, (2004) 1 RECCRIR 538, (2003) 106 DLT 158, (2003) 11 INDLD 30, (2004) 1 BANKJ 344, (2003) 2 CHANDCRIC 365, (2004) 1 KER LJ 552
Author: J.D. Kapoor
Bench: J.D. Kapoor
ORDER J.D. Kapoor, J.
1. Every law must perish if its enforceability is neither ensured hot made feasible by the concerned authorities. Otherwise remedy proves worst than the disease or peril. Same is the state of law relating to prosecutions under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act i.e. bouncing of cheques issued towards whole or part of the liability at least in the metropolis of Delhi.
2. This law provides penalties in case of dishonour of cheques due to insufficiency of funds in the account of the drawer of the cheque. These provisions were incorporated with a view to encourage the culture of use of cheques and enhancing the credibility of the instrument. Unamended law provided not only a cumbersome procedure but punishment was also inadequate. Courts were unable to dispose of such cases expeditiously in a time bound manner. Keeping in view the large number of cases pending in various Courts in the country, the legislature by enacting Section 143 of the Act, prescribed for summary trial of the cases under this Act and mandated that so far as practicable consistently with the interests of justice trial shall be continued from day to day until its conclusion and every trial shall be conducted as expenditiously as possible and an endeavor shall be made to conclude the trial within six months from the date of filing of the complaint.
3. This petition and many more like this project and demonstrate the sorry and sad state of trials of these cases in the Courts of Delhi. What to talk of concluding the trial in six months, one date of appearance of accused spreads to more than one year. As a consequence thousands of cases are pending for several years.
4. Statistics show that around 70,000 cases under Section 138 of the Act are pending in different Courts of Delhi and everyday hundreds of complaints are being filed. This phenomenon is result of abysmally low strength of Metropolitan Magistrates dealing with these cases. Obviously, it is the complainant who is aggrieved from this phenomenon and has preferred this petition direction for directing the trial Court to prepone the hearing and decide the case within the period prescribed under Section 143.
5. Conclusion of trial within the prescribed period is far cry and an impossibility as every Court is having thousands of cases on its file. However, exceptionally long date of one year for first appearance cannot be justified by any amount of reasoning as it is nothing but denial of justice itself as goes the old adage "justice delayed is justice denied". Interestingly here the sufferer is the victim himself. Accused owed him money. Not only he did not pay him his money but also forced him to shell out more money, time, and suffer agony by way of filing a private complaint before the Metropolitan Magistrate.
6. In view of the provisions of Section 143 of the Act and the agony the petitioner will undergo if such inordinately long dates are given, the request of the petitioner for directing the trial Court to prepare the date is justified. The petition is allowed. The petition is allowed. The learned trial Court is directed to prepare the date keeping in view of the provisions of Section 143 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. For the aforesaid purpose the petitioner shall appear before the learned trial Court on 10th Sept. 2003.
7. Since this Court is having many petitions like this and several years are being taken in disposing the cases under Section 138 of the Act, this Court feels constrained to recommend to the Government to create requisite number of posts of Metropolitan Magistrates in view of the huge pendency of cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act in order to meet the requirement of Section 143 of the Act. Otherwise this provision shall remain on the Statute Book only while in practice it is non existent and nugatory.
8. In order to meet the objective of speeding up disposal of the cases under Section 138 in terms of Section 143 of the Act, High Court may recommend to the Government for creation of posts for the Metropolitan Magistrates on the pattern that not more than 500 cases shall be assigned to brie Court. Registrar General of this Court shall take up the exercise immediately and put up the proposal to Hon'ble the Chief justice.
9. Before parting, this Court is constrained to make observations for the malady and phenomenon of malignant growth of cases in various Courts and the insurmounting backlogs. Backlogs are self feeding. Backlong results in highly expanded dockets of Courts calling for more Court time which is mainly unproductive because it is not devoted to actual trial time. It brings may ills in its train. Its weight tends to first distort and ultimately transforms the nature of justice particularly criminal justice. Even innocent persons roped in less serious crimes are driven to plead guilty in the face of either long detention in custody or pendency. Criminal justice delivery system is breaking down today from the stresses and massive urban workload thrust upon it. It stands shaken. I deem it needless to refer to the backlog of number of cases pending in the Courts that run into crores. Statistics are mind boggling. The way out does not lie in condemnation of judiciary or judges or lawyers or administrators. The phenomenon requires profound analysis.
10. It is high time that the Government should transfer the responsibility of Court Administration exclusively to the Judiciary as ultimately the public blames the judiciary for all ills and failure of administration of justice though the entire control about availability of Judges, supply of Administrative component and financial sanction vests in the Government. Transfer of power is not a gift but a burden to be shouldered Judicial administration everywhere has been operating with beggarly budget because it does not generate profit. But in this age of accountability from which the Courts also cannot escape the responsibility, judiciary need to be made single overreaching authority having control over budget and personnel as the cost of justice is measured in the Court room and in terms of gross statistics and not individual cases. House with two masters can never be strong.
11. Copy of this order be sent to the :--
(i) Registrar General for compliance of para 8.
(ii) Union of Law Secretary, Government of India for consideration of recommendations made in the judgment.