APEX DISTRIBUTORS Vs. TIMEX GROUP INDIA LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition under Section 406 of the Cr.P.C., the petitioners seek transfer of Criminal Complaint No.3960 of 2008 under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 pending before the Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House Court at New Delhi to the Court competent to try the same at Pondicherry. The cheque in question appears to have been issued on Vyasya Bank Ltd., Vellore, Tamil Nadu. When presented for encashment the same was dishonoured, whereupon, the respondent got notices issued to the petitioners asking them to pay the cheque amount within the statutory period of fifteen days from the date of the receipt of the said notices.

(2.) The petitioners' case, in the present transfer petition, is that the cheque in question was not in discharge of any debt or liability but had been given to the respondent-company by way of security. Dishonour of any such cheque was not, according to the petitioners, an offence punishable under Section 138 of the Act aforementioned. That apart, the petitioners claim that the Courts in Delhi have no jurisdiction to entertain the complaint. Simply because the statutory notices were issued to the petitioners from Delhi did not clothe the Courts in Delhi to take cognizance of the offence assuming that the same had been committed.

(3.) The only question that primarily arises for our consideration is whether the Courts in Delhi had the jurisdiction to entertain the complaint in the facts and circumstances of the case especially when issue of statutory notices was the only reason urged by the respondent-complainant for filing a complaint in Delhi. Issue of a statutory notice demanding payment of the cheque amount is, in our opinion, not sufficient to vest the Delhi Courts with the jurisdiction to entertain the complaint and try the case. We say so on the authority of the decision of this Court in Harman Electronics (P) Ltd. v. National Panasonic India (P) Ltd., 2009 1 SCC 720 where this aspect was examined at length. This Court ruled that issue of a statutory notice cannot constitute a valid ground for conferring jurisdiction upon the Court concerned to take cognizance of an offence under Section 138. That position has been reiterated in a recent decision delivered on 1st August, 2014 by this Court in Dashrath Rupsingh Rathod v. State of Maharashtra & Anr. Criminal Appeal No.2287 of 2009. In Dashrath Rupsingh's case this Court has overruled the earlier decision delivered by a two-Judge Bench of this Court in K. Bhaskaran v. Sankaran Vaidhyan Balan & Anr., 1999 7 SCC 510 upon which the respondent sought to place reliance in support of their contention that Delhi Court could exercise jurisdiction based on the fact that notice of demand of the cheque amount was issued from Delhi.