Kaushik Bhadra, Adv 18 June 2018

Defamation Suit Against Bank for Cheque Dishonour

I will be representing and will plead on behalf of a Bank tomorrow in a Civil Court. The plaintiff has filed a defamation suit against the Bank for dishonouring a cheque issued by him which caused a notice u/s 138 NI Act to be served upon him and which allegedly caused his defamation. Any statutes/judgements which might be helpful in getting the Bank out of this mess ?

Thank You.

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7 Replies

Raghav Arora 18 June 2018

Hi Sir! Thanks for the question! You are required to furnish the exact reason/grounds on which the bank dishonored the cheque. Did the customer have sufficient funds and despite that, the cheque got dishonored due to negligence on the part of the bank? If so, the defense is very difficult.

However, it further depends upon the content of the notice issued by the lawyer of the customer to the bank. Your drafting is obviously equally important. If you may help me with the exact grounds, it would enable me to help you with some authority if I can find one according to the contents of the information.

Good Luck!

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Kaushik Bhadra, Adv 18 June 2018

The plaintiff had enogh funds in his account and the cheque got dishonoured with the cheque return memo citing the reason for such dishonour as "mandate not clear". That was in 2011 and now even the Bank doesn't know why the mandate was not clear.

The grounds cited by the plaintiff chiefly depends on the alleged fact that the service of the notice u/s 138 NI Act by the third party - in whose facour he issued the cheque - caused his defamation and that the Bank was wrong in dishonouring the cheque which caused the apleged service of the said notice u/s 138 NI Act upon him.

Kumar Doab (FIN) 18 June 2018

The lack of clarity on part of bank as mentioned by you can trouble the bank.

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Siddharth Srivastava (Advocate) 18 June 2018

No case of defamation is made out if cheque is dishonoured. Basic ingredients of causing defamation is missing. Go with the definition and ingredients of defamation.

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Siddharth Srivastava (Advocate) 18 June 2018

No case of defamation is made out if cheque is dishonoured. Basic ingredients of causing defamation is missing. Go with the definition and ingredients of defamation.

Siddharth Srivastava (Advocate) 18 June 2018

No case of defamation is made out if cheque is dishonoured. Basic ingredients of causing defamation is missing. Go with the definition and ingredients of defamation.