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Bansal Milk Chilling Centre v. Rana Milk Food Private Ltd. & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 899Decided 25 Jul 2025
Crl.A. No.-003178-003178 - 2025 (arising out of SLP(Crl) No.15699 of 2024)
Mrs. Justice B.V. Nagarathna · Justice K.V. Viswanathan

Background

The appellant, a milk chilling business, filed a cheque-dishonour complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act against the respondents over three dishonoured cheques worth Rs. 14 lakh, describing the goods supplied as "Desi Ghee (milk products)." Before the complainant could be cross-examined, the appellant sought to amend the complaint, explaining that "Desi Ghee (milk products)" was a typographical error and the actual product supplied was plain "milk." The respondents objected strongly, arguing amendment after cognizance was impermissible and that this was really an attempt to dodge GST liability (ghee is taxable, milk is not). The trial court allowed the amendment, finding no prejudice since cross-examination had not begun, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court set that order aside, holding the change was substantive rather than a mere typographical fix and that it altered the nature of the complaint: a ruling the appellant then challenged before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court reaffirmed that criminal courts can permit amendment of a complaint under Section 200 CrPC where the defect is a curable, formal one and causes no prejudice to the accused, drawing on precedents including S.R. Sukumar v. S. Sunaad Raghuram and U.P. Pollution Control Board v. Modi Distillery, and rejected the argument that this principle applies only pre-cognizance. It also drew an analogy from Sections 216-217 CrPC (power to alter a charge), which similarly hinge on whether the accused would be prejudiced, allowing recall of witnesses where needed. On the facts, since the amendment was sought before cross-examination of the complainant had even begun, and concerned only the description of the product supplied (with the underlying debt/cheque transaction unchanged), the Court found no prejudice to the accused: any dispute about GST liability or the true nature of the transaction could and should be thrashed out through evidence at trial, not decided at the amendment stage. It held the High Court had wrongly delved into GST-leviability questions that were not its concern, set aside the High Court's order, restored the trial court's order permitting the amendment, and directed the trial to proceed expeditiously, with liberty for parties to recall already-examined witnesses.

Lesson Learnt

In cheque-bounce and other criminal complaints, courts can permit correction of a curable, formal defect (like a mislabelled product) at an early stage of trial as long as it causes no real prejudice to the accused: procedural technicalities should not be allowed to derail a trial's substance, especially before the complainant's evidence is even complete.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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