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Mita India Pvt. Ltd. vs Mahendra Jain

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 143Decided 20 Feb 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 546 of 2023
V. Ramasubramanian · Pankaj Mithal

Background

Mita India awarded Mahendra Jain a contract to shift a 33 KV overhead electrical line at its Dewas plant and by mistake overpaid him. Jain agreed to refund the excess and issued two cheques, which bounced on "stop payment" instructions. The company filed a Section 138 complaint through its authorised representative Ripanjit Singh Kohli, who had been appointed by the company's director and general power-of-attorney holder Kavindersingh Anand. Jain objected that Anand had no power to sub-delegate to Kohli and that Anand could not testify because the complaint did not say he knew the facts. The trial court and revisional court rejected these objections, but the Madhya Pradesh High Court, under Section 482 CrPC, quashed those orders relying on A.C. Narayanan v. State of Maharashtra (2014).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the company's appeal and restored the trial court's orders. Applying the A.C. Narayanan principles, it noted that a complaint can be filed through a power-of-attorney holder, and that a general attorney may sub-delegate if the power of attorney contains a specific clause permitting it. Here the board-approved power of attorney authorised Anand "to appoint counsels or special attorneys" for conducting cases; the Court read "special attorneys" as distinct from "counsel" (a separate clause dealt with appointing lawyers and consultants), so the sub-delegation to Kohli was valid and the complaint, filed in the company's own name, was maintainable. On the second point, Anand was a director who had filed a personal affidavit stating he was fully conversant with the facts; the High Court "manifestly erred" in ignoring that affidavit merely because the averment was not in the complaint itself. Since he had knowledge of the transaction, he was competent to depose.

Lesson Learnt

A company can pursue a cheque-bounce case through an authorised representative, and its attorney can pass on that authority if the power of attorney expressly allows appointing "special attorneys." What matters is that the person who files or testifies actually knows the facts of the transaction, which can be shown by affidavit even if the complaint itself is silent.

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

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