The honorable Supreme Court
has said that if the cheque is dishonoured of a person with the reason of
mismatching the signature with the spiceman signatures with the bank, he may
face criminal proceedings.
A Bench of justices T.S.
Thakur and Gyan Sudha Mishra set aside the verdict of Gujarat High Court which
had held that criminal proceedings for dishonouring of cheque can be initiated
only when the cheque is dishonoured because of lack of sufficient amount in the
bank account and not in case where a cheque is returned due to mismatch of
signature of account holder.
“Just as dishonour of a
cheque on the ground that the account has been closed is a dishonour falling in
the first contingency referred to in Section 138 of Negotiable Instrument Act,
so also dishonour on the ground that the ’signatures do not match’ or that the
‘image is not found’, which too implies that the specimen signatures do not
match the signatures on the cheque would constitute a dishonour within the
meaning of Section 138 of the Act,” the bench said.
The apex court, however,
said that in such cases of dishonouring of cheques, the account holder must be
given a notice and an opportunity to arrange the payments before initiation of
criminal proceedings against him.
“Dishonour on account of
such changes that may occur in the course of ordinary business of a company,
partnership or an individual may not constitute an offence by itself because
such a dishonour in order to qualify for prosecution under Section 138 shall
have to be preceded by a statutory notice where the drawer is called upon and
has the opportunity to arrange the payment of the amount covered by the
cheque,” it said.
Tags-dishonour of cheque,
cheque dishonor rule, how to complaint of dishonouring of cheque, cheque
dishonor rule, cheque dishonor law.
