DJPoint (student) 11 April 2014

Stay of criminal proceedings in cheque dishonour case

The complainant in a cheque dishonour case initiated criminal proceedings against the accused, and also filed a civil suit for the recovery of the amount.

The accused in return filed a civil suit for the cancellation of the cheques, and now all three cases are running side by side.

My question is can the criminal proceedings be stayed until the civil suit for the cancellation of cheques is decided because if cheques are cancelled by the civil court then that judgement will have direct effect on the criminal proceedings as then the criminal liability will disappear.????

Kindly give your valuable advice on this point.

Thanks.

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4 Replies

DJPoint (student) 14 April 2014

any one with any advice on my question?

R Trivedi (advocate.dma@gmail.com) 15 April 2014

Civil and criminal cases can run together, and none need be stayed because of the other.

Please through some light on the suit filed by accused for cancellation of cheques.

DJPoint (student) 16 April 2014

Kindly correct me if i'm wrong, but according to my research, criminal proceedings can be stayed under two circumstances:

1- when the plaintiff takes two different stances in a criminal case and civil case regarding the same subject matter, then criminal case will be stayed until civil can be decided,

2- When the criminal and civil cases on the same subject matter are running side by side and civil case's decision can have direct effect on criminal case's outcome, and as a result Court cannot allow two conflicting decisions on the same subject matter by both the criminal and civil court.

So respected forum members, i was thinking that the above case question in my first post will fall under the second number because if the civil court cancels the cheques, then how the criminal court can hold the accused liable for the cheque dishonour offence??

DJPoint (student) 16 April 2014

The accused had taken the plea of his cheques being stolen by the respondent who is the complainant in the criminal case, and civil court has given the ex parte judgement of cancelling the cheques as complainant had produced his lawyer in the civil court upon receiving the summons but later on that lawyer stopped pursuing the case and hence the civil court gave ex parte judgement.