(i) The Hon. Supreme Court in Criminal Appeal No.2287 of 2009 Dashrath Rupsingh Rathod vs. State of Maharashtra had ruled that All other Complaints (obviously including those where the accused / respondent has not been properly served) shall be returned to the Complainant for filing in the proper Court, in consonance with our exposition of the law. If such Complaints are filed/refiled within thirty days of their return, they shall be deemed to have been filed within the time prescribed by law, unless the initial or prior filing was itself time barred.
(ii) Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 promulgated on 15/06/2015 says
142A. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 or any judgment, decree, order or directions of any court, all cases arising out of section 138 which were pending in any court, whether filed before it, or transferred to it, before the commencement of the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 shall be transferred to the court having jurisdiction under sub-section (2) of section 142 as if that sub-section had been in force at all material times.
When the SC judgement has been overturned by the ordinance, where is the question of returning the complaint to the complainant. Under what authority of law complaints have been returned by trial court? The courts are bound by the ordinance to TRANSFER the case to the jurisdiction court and not RETURN it to the complainant. What will happen if this decision to return the complaint to the complainant is challenged in high court? Are the courts still following Dashrath Rupsingh Rathod judgement or the Ordinance. The SC delivered the judgement on 1/8/2014. Then why was it not implemented for next 15 months and Courts continued to hear cases and why suddenly they woke up after promulgation of ordinance? Secondly, the ordinance was promulgated on 15/06/2015, then why no action was taken to return the documents and again why cases continued to be heard. These are very inconvenient question which nobody wants to answer.
Remembr that complainant has no authority to be in possession of court documents. Court documents cannot be given to him to keep in his custody. When the case had reached finality and judgement was to be delivered on the date when compaint was returned to the complaint or at most on the next hearing, giving case file in original means complainant can manipulate the original evidences submitted by accused and admitted as exhibits by the court, destroy documents since no proof will be availalble anywhere as certified copies of the complaint have not been retained by the transferor court.
Everybody seems to be groping in the dark.
