TMI Blog2021 (12) TMI 1006X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... end to the general convenience of the parties or witnesses, or is expedient for the ends of justice, then the Court may inter alia order that any particular case be transferred from a Criminal Court subordinate to its authority to any other such Criminal Court of equal or superior jurisdiction. In the case in hand, the petitioner has not raised any apprehension regarding any unfair and partial trial nor regarding any question of law of unusual difficulty which is likely to arise in the complaint under Section 138 r/w 142 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. The only ground that the petitioner has raised is with regard to the inconvenience he likely to face in attending the trial at Jorhat by travelling from his village of residence at Ting ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Dibrugarh at Dibrugarh. 3. The complaint petition pertaining to the complaint case, C.R. [N.I.] Case no. 462/2019 is annexed to this petition as Annexure-3. From the said complaint, it is seen that the respondent HDFC Bank as the complainant had instituted the said complaint under Section 142 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, as amended [the Negotiable Instruments Act] against the petitioner as the accused for commission of an offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. As per the complaint, the petitioner-accused had availed KGC loan facility from the respondent-complainant bank by entering into a loan agreement with Loan Account no. 50200020561057 and Loan Agreement n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... der Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, issued process against the petitioner for his appearance to stand the trial. 5. Mr. Dhar, learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner had applied for an agricultural loan for an amount of ₹ 8,00,000/- from the respondent- complainant bank but he received an amount of ₹ 4,00,000/- only from the respondent- complainant bank. He has submitted that he had paid the entire amount in the year 2017 by issuing a cheque which the respondent-complainant bank had received with the assurance the amount would be adjusted to the loan account and a clearance certificate would be issued to him. But despite several approaches, the bank did not act in the manner it was ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... would be inconvenient for the petitioner-accused to travel from his village to Jorhat and besides that, it would entail a heavy expenditure. 6. In response, Mr. Sharma has submitted that the concerned cheque was presented in the bank at Jorhat. As such, the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jorhat at Jorhat has the territorial jurisdiction to try the complaint. 7. The provision of Section 407 of the Code has provided power to the High Court to transfer cases and appeals. It is laid down therein that whenever it is made to appear to the High Court [a] that a fair and impartial inquiry or trial cannot be had in any Criminal Court subordinate thereto, or [b] that some question of law of unusual difficulty is likely to arise; or ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... had to travel across an entire State to attend to criminal proceedings before a jurisdictional court. In some cases to reach the venue of the trial court, a complainant or an accused Page No. 5/5 may have to travel across several States. Likewise, witnesses too may also have to travel long distances, in order to depose before the jurisdictional court. If the plea of inconvenience for transferring the cases from one court to another, on the basis of time taken to travel to the court conducting the criminal trial is accepted, the provisions contained in a Criminal Procedure Code earmarking the courts having jurisdiction to try cases would be rendered meaningless. Convenience or inconvenience are inconsequential so far as the mandate of law i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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