Over two lakh such cases in Mumbai alone, state government informs high court.
In what could be an eye-opener for the judiciary, the Bombay High Court has been informed by the state government that nearly seven lakh cheque bouncing cases are pending across the state.
Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Nashik District Industrial and Mercantile Co-operative Bank Ltd, the division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice AM Khanvilkar has now directed the state government to give complete details of cases pending under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. The said Section deals with cheque bouncing cases.
According to the petition and also a statement made by the state government, 2.88 lakh such cases are pending in Mumbai alone. The PIL has claimed that the pending number of cases are related to the lack of judges.
The petitioners had approached the court in 2007, saying that several hundred cheque-bouncing cases filed by them were pending in magistrates courts since 2003. “The amount of such bounced cheques runs into Rs10 crore. These cases should be tried on a day-to-day basis, until they are concluded,” said the petition.
On Thursday, advocate general Ravi Kadam informed the court that there are about seven lakh such cases pending in state courts and the government is minutely examining the matter.
The state, in its recent affidavit, has also said that the Negotiable Instruments Act is a central act and hence it is an obligation of the central government to establish courts to handle cases under Section 138 of this act.
“We will now seek instructions from the government and inform the HC about our stand,” said Mandar Goswami, counsel for the central government.
The judges, on the other hand, remarked that no one can be stopped from approaching the court, adding that institutions can be charged to finance the increased infrastructure costs. The court also observed that though the state government had created 20 new posts for magistrates to hear cheque- bouncing cases, no appointments have been made yet. “There is a need to provide a solution,” remarked Justice Kumar.
The court also sought to know the rate of pending and disposal of cases registered under the Act at the state and national levels, and has called for statistics on the judge-case ratio, as well as the proposed infrastructure needed to deal with these cases.
The state government had also proposed starting ‘evening courts’ to deal with pending cases. A notification was issued to this effect in July this year, but has yet to be made effective.
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