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2022 (11) TMI 1085 - HC - Indian LawsDishonor of Cheque - existence of legally enforceable debt or not - vicarious liability of Directors - rebuttal of presumption or not - directors were incharge of or responsible for the conduct of business of the accused company in the year 2020 or not - Section 138 and 141 of NI Act, 1881 - HELD THAT:- The settled position of law is that the signatory of a cheque which is dishonoured, is responsible for the act and will be covered under sub-section (2) of Section 141. Therefore, no special averments would be necessary to make him liable. A perusal of the complaint in the present case, however, reveals that specific averments have even been made against the petitioners i.e. accused no. 4 and 5 and their specific role has been highlighted by the complainant bank/respondent. In the case at hand, firstly, neither the signatures of the petitioners on the cheques nor the liability for which the cheques were issued has been denied. In such a case, the presumption under Section 139 of NI Act, 1881 would certainly arise in favour of the holder of the cheque i.e., the respondent bank/complainant - Three-judge bench of Hon’ble Supreme Court in M/S. KALAMANI TEX & ANR VERSUS P. BALASUBRAMANIAN [2021 (2) TMI 505 - SUPREME COURT] held that if the signatures on the cheque are admitted, presumption under Section 139 NI Act, 1881 would be attracted. The primary dispute in the present case pertains to the question as to whether the cheques issued by the petitioners on behalf of the accused company on 23.12.2016 were undated or not, and whether the signatories to the cheques i.e. the petitioners were a part of the accused company at the time of commission of offence or not - this Court is of the opinion that the issue as to whether the petitioners had resigned before the presentation of cheques or not is a disputed question of facts and has to be decided on the basis of relevant documents and evidence to be produced at the stage of trial. This is not a case involving a resignation of a director which can be simply verified by this Court by perusing Form 32 issued by Registrar of Companies. The petitioners herein were admittedly the employees in the holding company of accused no. 1 and were its authorised signatories at the time when the credit facility was obtained from the respondent bank. It is also not the case of petitioners that they had informed the respondent about their resignations, rather, they had merely asked the accused company to do the same. Nothing is placed on record to show that the respondent bank was informed by the accused company about the resignations of the authorised signatories to cheques issued to it, before the same were presented for encashment - if the plea of petitioners is accepted that since they were not a part of the accused company at the time when cheques signed by them were dishonoured, it would in fact, amount to snatching away the right of respondent bank to examine the signatories of the cheques before the learned Trial Court. In such a situation, it would be prudent and appropriate to permit the respondent bank to lead evidence in support of its claim, and dropping the proceedings against both the signatories of the cheques, at the very initial stage, would amount to throttling the trial. Petition dismissed.
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