12. Per contra, Ms. Y.N. Katpitia for respondent No.2 in Writ
Petition No. 3443 OF 2022 submitted that the petitioner had been
held guilty under section 138 of the NI Act read with section
141(1)(2). According to her, the term drawer used in section 148
includes all persons responsible for drawing the dishonoured
cheque and includes each and every person held guilty who, at the
time of the offence committed, was in charge and was responsible
to the company for the conduct of its business. It also includes
every person who is proved to have consented to or connived for
the offence or to whom the offence is attributable. Absolving the
authorised signatory of a company from the purview of section 148
of the NI Act will completely defeat the purpose of section 148.
Placing reliance on the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of
Surinder Singh Deswal @ Col. S. S. vs. Virender Gandhi
reported in Criminal Appeal Nos.1936-1963 of 2019, she
submitted that the Apex Court had directed the accused to deposit
a minimum of 20% amount of fine and compensation awarded by
the Trial Court. She submitted that if the petitioner's interpretation
of section 148 is accepted, it would amply that in no case of
dishonoured cheque, suspension of sentence of imprisonment can
be ordered by the Appellate Court on condition of deposit and
every order of suspension of a sentence need to be passed without
deposit of any amount. According to her, section 148 applies to all
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appellants filing an appeal against conviction under section 138 of
the Act. She emphasised on word 'appellant' in sub section (1) of
section 148 to urge that if the legislature intended to restrict the
ambit of section 148 of the NI Act to only the drawer against the
conviction, the legislature would have provided so in the section
instead of using the word 'appellant'.
Drawing distinction in the observations made in paragraph
20 of Aneeta Hada (supra) and para 22 of N. Hariharu
Krishnan (supra), it is submitted that the observations
made in paragraph 22 constitute ratio and, therefore, bind
this court.
In this regard, a reference must also be made to a judgment
by the Supreme Court in the State of Madras v. Gannon
Dunkerley and Co. (Madras) Ltd. AIR 1958 SC 560 , where
the true meaning of the word "sale" as used in Entry 48 and Entry
54 was examined at length. It was observed after considering the
earlier cases of the Supreme Court "that the expression 'sale of
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goods' in Entry 48 cannot be construed in its popular sense and
that it must be interpreted in its legal sense." Tracing from the
Roman Law of emptio venditio, the Supreme Court considered "the
common law of England relating to sales which had developed
very much on the lines of the Roman Law in insisting on an
agreement between parties and price as essential elements of a
contract of sale of goods" and referring to the codification of the
law in England by the Sale of Goods Act, 1893, and the Indian Sale
of Goods Act, 1930, Venkatarama Aiyyar J. explained the general
rule of construction that words used in statutes must be taken in
their legal sense and observed,
"22. ..............the ratio of the rule of interpretation that
words of legal import occurring in a statute should be
construed in their legal sense is that those words have, in
law, acquired a definite and precise sence, and that,
accordingly, the legislature must be taken to have intended
that they should be understood in that sense. In interpreting
an expression used in a legal sense, therefore, we have only
to ascertain the precise connotation which it possesses in law.
It has been already stated that, both under the common law
and the statute law relating to sale of goods in England and
in India, to constitute a transaction of sale there should be an
agreement, express or implied, relating to goods to be
completed by passing of title in those goods. It is of the
essence of this concept that both the agreement and the sale
should relate to the same subject-matter. .............."