more-in A Delhi court has dismissed an appeal by a man against a punishment of six-month imprisonment that he was awarded in a cheque bounce case. A Metropolitan Magistrate court had also asked him to pay the complainant, a compensation of ?1 lakh, which is twice the loan amount that he had taken from him. The complaint stated that the accused had taken a loan of ?50,000 from the complainant and had given a cheque for repayment of the loan amount. However, when the complainant submitted the cheque to the bank concerned, it was not honoured due to insufficient balance in the account of the accused. When issuing of legal notice seeking repayment of the loan elicited no response from the accused, the complainant filed a case against him in the court under the Negotiable Instruments Act. Convicting him, the Metropolitan Magistrate court sentenced him to six-month simple imprisonment and directed him to pay a compensation of ?1 lakh to the complainant. The accused then made an appeal in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Sunena Sharma against the Metropolitan Magistrate court judgment. Dismissing his appeal, the judge said: “This court does not find any illegality or infirmity in the impugned judgement. In the considered view of this court, trial court has rightly convicted the accused for the offences punishable under Section 138 of the [Negotiable Instruments] Act.” The judge also dismissed his plea for reduction of the quantum of sentence. “The offence under Section 138 [of the Negotiable Instruments Act] prescribes punishment for a term, which may extend to two years or with fine, which may extend to twice the amount of cheque, or with both. The trial court has already taken a lenient view by sentencing the accused to six-month simple imprisonment despite the fact that the maximum punishment prescribed under the Act is two years,” the judge said.

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