Reddy (Some Enggineer) 10 November 2014

Check-bounce petition dismissed

Hi,

We filed a check-bounce case against someone who owes us 1.5 lakhs in return for a hand-loan we have provided him in 2010. We asked an advocate to file both criminal & civil cases, stressing more on the criminal case. Our advocate tried to file the criminal case, but the court didn't accept the petition/affidavit citing many errors. So my advocate told us that she would make the necessary corrections and submit it back. But she never did. And eventually, she told us that she can't file the criminal case anymore because we lost lot of time.

Then we pursued the civil case. After about 1 year, our advocate started ignoring our calls giving reasons such as "I am busy now" etc. After about 2 years, one day when we called her, she said "oh, why are you calling me now... your case was dismissed at least 2 months back". Then we asked her the reason for the dismissal of our petition. She said "I have to go through the documents to know the reasons myself. Give me a month or two, I will let you know."

Now we want to approach the Bar Council to file a complaint against the advocate because we feel that she was careless and irresponsible. But we don't have receipts of the payments we have made to her. And we don't have any evidence that proves that we kept calling her but she never responded.

My question is.... do you think its worth approaching the Bar Council ? What are the chances of Bar Council taking action against the advocate, so that no poor people will get cheated by such advocates? Please keep in mind the following:

1) We have a promissory note as well

2) The defendant claimed that he has never given any promissory note. But no handwriting/signature test was requested by our advocate

Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Reply Follow

3 Replies

Hardeep (Business) 11 November 2014

The case is of 2010 and you are thinking of approaching Bar Council now with no proof of either payments made or lapses if any.

To my mind you have a very weak case against the advocate, unless you can prove serious lapses and initiate complain procedures soon thereafter .

Sad, but as the litigant it is your prime responsibility as well to be updated regularly on what is happening to your case.

a cheque bounce case is normally filed under S. 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act. just curious - under what section was your case filed and why was it rejected in the beginning itself ?

Reddy (Some Enggineer) 11 November 2014

Hi Hardeep,

Thanks for your reply.

Here is the timeline of events...

2010 - Lent money as "hand-loan"

2012 - Check bounced

2012 - Criminal case not accepted by the court citing errors.

2012 - Civil case filed

Sep 2014 - Civil case dismissed

Nov 2014 - Lawyer notifies us on the dismissal of the petition

Also, when I say "we don't have payment receipts", I mean receipts for payments made to ADVOCATE.

But we have a Promissory Note for the money lent to the defendant.

Hardeep (Business) 12 November 2014

From the timeline indicated by you the delay of the Advocate seems to be two months( say Mid Sept to Mid Nov. 2014 ). To establish the lawyer's gross deficiency in service you should have proof of the followups made by you and that the petition was dismissed due bad service by the Lawyer - for eg. he was not present on the day of hearing and the case dismissed ex parte, .

If the case has been dismissed on merits you don't have a case against the advocate, IMHO. Bear in mind that the lawyers are ultimately " officers of the Court " and it is the Court which decides, per facts and evidence, whether you win a case or not.

You have also not clarified under what section was your case filed and why was it rejected in the beginning itself ?

Also, you still may have time to file an appeal in a higher court - check the time limit for the same given in the dismissal order , normally it is 60-90 days and can be condoned by the Court in exceptional cases. So, if you are confident of your case you can appeal in higher court, maybe via a different lawyer.