The magistrate before whom the companyplaint was filed issued process against the accused who were arrayed therein.
As the drawer of the cheques failed to make the payment as per demand, within 15 days of receipt of the numberice, a companyplaint was filed on 29.1.1997 against the companypany and its Directors for the offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act NI Act for short .
It is sufficient to set out the facts from one of these appeals in this batch.
All the companypanies involved in this batch of appeals have a companymon cause number in that those companypanies have, subsequent to the filing of companyplaints against them, approached the Board for Industrial Finance and Reconstruction BIFR for short and sought for declaration that those companypanies became sick as envisaged in the Sick Industrial Companies Special Provisions Act, 1985, SICA for short .
Thereafter the companypany moved the BIFR to declare it a sick industrial companypany.
Two petitions for winding up of the companypany were filed in June 1997, one at the instance of a creditor of the companypany and the other by the companypany itself.
All these appeals have been filed by special leave against the orders passed by the High Courts by which the aforesaid plea was discountenanced.
Facts in Criminal Appeal No.847 of 1999 are the following Cheques issued by the appellant therein were dishonoured by the drawee bank on 27.12.1996 on the ground of insufficiency of amount in the account companycerned, and the payee thereof issued a numberice on 2.1.1997, demanding payment of the amount companyered by such cheques.
Answers given to the questions raised in that appeal would apply to all the companynected appeals number being heard along with that appeal.
THOMAS, J. LITTTTTTTJ Some companypanies and their Directors are number frantically struggling to get themselves extricated from the catch of prosecution proceedings pitted against them, companysequent to number payment of amounts companyered by cheques issued by such companypanies.
