Cheque dishonour

you need not worry about the a/c no. , present in your a/c the drawer bank can identify the no. of chq with a/c no in (if computerised  branch).

Well I have a related querry , the act says the cheque bounced from an accout maintained by the accused.

I have rearely seen any NI 138 complaint mentioning account no and I have taken postion in many cases that accout no must be mentioned, though no final order so far.

Mr Reddy please develop this problem in more detail.

If account number has not been mentioned in the cheque, and if the Bank is not in a position to identify the account to which the Cheque relates, then the bank would return the cheque without making payment to the payee with the remarks "refer to the drawer".  The said reason given by the bank is not sufficient to succeed in 138 N.I. case.

I think I am not clear with my words ...... A case is pending in court in which this cheque is in question, as it was dishonored but it does not have an account number on it..... Bank authorities have not objected on not mentioning of account number…………. but as per law what I think is cheque is not properly drawn....now what will be faith of case. Problem raised by Mr. shashikumar  is different and that is not my point……I do not question non disclosure of account number in notice or complaint but in cheque itself……… and this is a case which is pending in trial court since year 2000 (still in stage of plaintiff evidence)

Dear Mr. Rohit,

I have already understood your case completely.  The bank had returned the cheque to you with the remark "refer to drawer".  On that basis after issuing the notice you have filed the case u/s. 138 N.I. Act.  The case is pending.  Now you want to know what will be the outcome of the case.  As already indicated by me, the case will be ultimately dismissed as not maintainable since none of the ingredients required for action under Sec. 138 N.I. are present in this case.

bank had returned the cheque with the remark "amount insufficient".  And I am from accused side

Dear Rohit, You say that you are an accused in the Sec. 138 N.I. case. Your only defence seems to be that your "account number" has not been mentioned in the cheque.

I had already indicated in my reply above that "If account number has not been mentioned in the cheque, and if the Bank is not in a position to identify the account to which the Cheque relates, then the bank would return the cheque without making payment to the payee with the remarks "refer to the drawer". 

In the instant case however, the bank was able to identify the account [even though the same is not mentioned in the cheque] to which the cheque relates, and on finding that there was insufficient funds, the cheque had been returned with the remarks "insufficiency of funds".  It is a very perfect ground for case u/s. 138 N.I.

If the accused had not paid the amount of the cheque in response to the notice received from the drawee, then the drawee might have filed the case u/s. 138 N.I. Act.  The case is bound to go in favour of the complainant and against the accused.  Non-mentioning of the account number on the cheque cannot be a ground for defence, so long as there was no money in the account of the accused to honour the cheque in question.