Vinit (Supervisor) 17 March 2014

Stop payment

Dear All,

I need advice in section 138 nia act. I had appointed lawyer to fight my DV-section 12 case which has been filed by my wife against my whole family. I had done some partial payment of agreed amount at start of case and as per our discussion I suppose to pay 10,000 to lawyer at the time of filing say in court. My lawyer was not attending my court dates regularly and judge of case also warned her for her irregularness in court.

She had given us appointment two days prior to file say in court and prepared the say. As promised I had given her cheque of "X " amount and promised to handover remaining "Y" amount after filing say in court. However there were lots of mistake in the say so I called up her to inform correction in say. Instead of giving me time she started argument with me and then she said that she would not fight my case and asked me to appoint another lawyer for my case as she doesn’t have a time and asked me to collect my issued cheque and NOC from her office. When I visited her office she informed me that her husband has credited cheque in bank and will return my money after cheque deposited on her account. Smelling some fishy in her statement I stopped the payment of cheque.

Now she has issued me notice on her letterhead and asked to pay entire promised amount within 15 days otherwise she will file case against me under section 138 NIC. I don’t have proof of my initial payment as I had given that payment in cash and she didn’t given us any receipt stating that she never gives any receipt to anyone.

Please do let me know what action I should take against this false notice.

Regards,

Vinit

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4 Replies

Arvind Singh Chauhan (advocate) 17 March 2014

You have done blunder. Prepare answer of notice with the help of lawyer.

Nadeem Qureshi (Advocate/ nadeemqureshi1@gmail.com) 18 March 2014

first of all reply the notice through a lawyer and try to settle the matter amicably with her because if the matter is not settled then she can file a case before court and unnecessary, you harassed,

R Trivedi (advocate.dma@gmail.com) 18 March 2014

She is just bluffing, she will do nothing.

As an extra precaution, tell her to issue the NOC amicably otherwise you will complaint to bar. That should be good enough.

Dr. MPS RAMANI Ph.D.[Tech.] (Scientist/Engineer) 24 March 2014

I had a confusion as to whether the dispute you are referring to here is with your wife or with your lawyer. When I read that her husband had sent the cheque to bank I started wondering whether your wife had re-married even when the DV case was in process. Then only I realized that you had a female lawyer. I am a bit slow in understanding.

You do not have to worry about Section 138. The Section will apply only if service had been already rendered and you had been presented with an invoice or a bill. In such an event it would amount to cheating. What you did here was only payment of an advance. But be careful! lawyers can distort facts.

If I were in your place I will not appoint another lawyer to fight the first lawyer. Who knows, the second lawyer also may file another Section 138 against you?