Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881–Sec. 141–Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973–Sec. 482 –Offence by company / firm–Prosecution–Legal principles-
(i) Vicarious liability can be fastened on those who are in charge of and responsible to the company or firm for the conduct of its business– For the purpose of Sec. 141, the firm comes within the ambit of a company.
(ii) It is not necessary to reproduce the language of Sec. 141 verbatim in the complaint since the complaint is required to be read as a whole.
(iii) If the substance of the allegations made in the complaint fulfil the requirements of Sec. 141, the complaint has to proceed in regards to the law.
(iv) In construing a complaint, a hyper-technical approach should not be adopted so as to quash the same.
(v) The laudable object of preventing bouncing of cheques and sustaining the credibility of commercial transactions, resulting in the enactment of Secs. 138 and 141 respectively should be kept in mind by the Court concerned.
(vi) These provisions create a statutory presumption of dishonesty exposing a person to criminal liability if the payment is not made within the statutory period even after the issue of notice.
(vii) The power of quashing should be exercised very sparingly and where, read as a whole, the factual foundation for the offence has been laid in the complaint, it should not be quashed.
(viii) The Court concerned would owe a duty to discharge the accused if, taking everything stated in the complaint is correct and construing the allegations made therein liberally in favour of the complainant, the ingredients of the offence are altogether lacking.
