- (1.) On 13/10/2006, while granting leave in Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No.211 of 2005, this Court passed the following order: "In our view, the judgment relied upon by the counsel for the appellant in the case of Saketh India Ltd. & Ors. v. India Securities Ltd., 1999 3 SCC 1 requires reconsideration. Orders of the Hon'ble the Chief Justice may be obtained for placing this matter before a larger Bench." Pursuant to the above order, this appeal is placed before us.
(2.) Since the referral order states that the judgment of this Court in Saketh India Ltd. & Ors. v. India Securities Ltd., 1999 3 SCC 1 requires reconsideration, we must first refer to the said judgment. In that case, this Court identified the question of law involved in the appeal before it as under: "Whether the complaint filed under Section 138 of the NI Act is within or beyond time as it was contended that it was not filed within one month from the date on which the cause of action arose under clause (c) of the proviso to Section 138 of the NI Act - The same question was reframed in simpler language as under: "Whether for calculating the period of one month which is prescribed under Section 142(b), the period has to be reckoned by excluding the date on which the cause of action arose -
(3.) It is pointed out to us that there is a variance between the view expressed by this Court on the above question in Saketh and in SIL Import, USA v. Exim Aides Silk Exporters, Bangalore, 1999 4 SCC 567. We will have to therefore re-examine it for the purpose of answering the reference. The basic provisions of law involved in this reference are proviso (c) to Section 138 and Section 142(b) of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 ("the NI Act").;