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Rajeshbhai Muljibhai Patel & Ors. v. The State of Gujarat & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2020 INSC 160Decided 10 Feb 2020
Criminal Appeal Nos. 251-252 of 2020
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice A.S. Bopanna

Background

Two brothers, Rajeshbhai and Yogeshbhai, were involved in a dispute over family agricultural land and a cash transaction of Rs. 1.2 crore allegedly given by their maternal uncle (appellant No. 3) to help buy land. When cheques issued to repay this amount bounced, a criminal cheque-dishonour case was filed, and in response the other side filed a cheating/forgery FIR alleging the underlying receipts were forged. The Gujarat High Court quashed the FIR against the appellants but also quashed the original cheque-dishonour case, prompting cross-appeals to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court was wrong on both counts. Since the genuineness of the disputed receipts was already a live issue pending in a separate civil summary suit, the criminal FIR for forgery should not have been allowed to continue and was correctly liable to be quashed. However, the Court held the High Court erred in quashing the Section 138 cheque-dishonour case, because once cheque issuance is admitted, a statutory presumption of legal liability arises under Section 139 of the NI Act, and that presumption can only be rebutted by the accused leading evidence at trial, not short-circuited by a High Court exercising its inherent powers. The cheque case was accordingly restored for trial.

Lesson Learnt

A disputed signature or forgery allegation under investigation in a pending civil suit should not automatically be allowed to spawn a separate criminal case; and in cheque-bounce matters, admitting you signed and issued the cheque shifts the burden onto you to disprove liability in a full trial, not get the case thrown out at a preliminary stage.

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

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