A person may face criminal proceedings if a cheque issued by him gets
dishonoured on the ground that his signature does not match the specimen
signature available with the bank, the Supreme Court has said.
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.
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