Anita Chaudhry, J. - (1.) The petitioners are seeking quashing of FIR No. 323 dated 27.11.2013, registered under Sections 406 and 420 read with Section 120-B IPC, at Police Station Mandi Gobindgarh, District Fatehgarh Sahib, at the instance of respondent No.2.
(2.) The facts relevant for adjudication and not in dispute are that the petitioners are Directors of M/s Saggar Steels Pvt. Ltd. and consumer of Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd., Mandi Gobindgarh (hereinafter to be referred as 'Corporation', for brevity). Against an outstanding electricity bill of INR 92,98,696/-, 2 they issued a cheque bearing No. 078585 dated 21.12.2012, which was dishonoured with the remarks "exceeding arrangement". They also failed to make the payment despite issuance of legal notice by the Corporation. Thus, on the basis of complaint made to the police by respondent No.2, impugned FIR was registered against the petitioners.
(3.) Quashing of the FIR has been sought by the petitioners on the ground that the dispute between the parties is civil in nature and the impugned FIR is an abuse of process of law and liable to be quashed. The stand of the petitioners is that after dishonour of the cheque, the remedy was by filing a complaint under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act and the registration of the FIR was not permissible. Reliance has been placed on State of Haryana v. Chaudhary Bhajan Lal & Ors. 1992 SCC (Crl.) 426, Charanjit Singh Chawla v. State of Punjab, 2009(2) RCR(Crl.) 690 and Ashok Kumar Mittal v. State of Punjab & Ors. 2013 (7) RCR(Crl.) 1321.;