75 year-old walks free with less penalty in cheque bounce case

"After taking into consideration the old age of the appellant (Laxmi Narayan), the impugned order on sentence is modified and the appellant is sentenced to pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakhs to the complainant," Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Rajneesh Kumar Gupta said.

The court partly allowed the plea of 75-year-old Laxmi Narayan who had challenged the award of one year jail term and a fine of Rs three lakh imposed on him by a magistrate in the case.

The ASJ reduced the fine from Rs three to two lakh and asked Laxmi Narayan, a resident of Ranhaulla, to pay the money to complainant Neelam Devi who had advanced a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh to him nearly four years ago.

The accused later issued a cheque to Neelam which got dishonoured with the remark from the bank that the payment has been stopped by him. Neelam filed a complaint against him under the Negotiable Instruments Act alleging initially Narayan did not pay her back the amount along with the interest. Later, he issued a cheque which got dishonoured.

In his defence, Narayan submitted that the cheque was stolen from his house and Neelam misused it. The ASJ upheld the order of the trial court with some modifications.
"Keeping in view the discussions, I do not find any infirmity or illegality in the impugned judgment (of trial court)and accordingly it is upheld and impugned order on sentence is modified to the extent as discussed," the ASJ said.