{"id":247287,"date":"2021-04-18T11:40:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T06:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=247287"},"modified":"2021-04-23T12:39:56","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T07:09:56","slug":"no-more-mechanical-conversion-of-complaints-under-section-138-ni-act-from-summary-to-summons-trial-magistrates-must-record-reasons-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/04\/18\/no-more-mechanical-conversion-of-complaints-under-section-138-ni-act-from-summary-to-summons-trial-magistrates-must-record-reasons-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"No more “mechanical” conversion of complaints under Section 138 NI Act from summary to summons trial; Magistrates “must” record reasons: Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court<\/strong>: Noticing that the summary trials of complaints filed under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 are being routinely converted to summons trials in a \u201cmechanical manner\u201d, the Constitution bench of SA Bobde, CJ and L. Nageswara Rao, BR Gavai, AS Bopanna and S. Ravindra Bhat, JJ has directed the High Courts to issue practice directions to the Magistrates for recording cogent and sufficient reasons while doing so.<\/p>\n

The Court explained that in a case tried summarily in which the accused does not plead guilty, it is sufficient for the Magistrate to record the substance of the evidence and deliver a judgment, containing a brief statement of reasons for his findings. There is a restriction that the procedure for summary trials is not to be applied for any sentence of imprisonment exceeding three months. However, Sections 262 to 265 of the Code were made applicable \u201cas far as may be\u201d for trial of an offence under Chapter XVII of the Act, notwithstanding anything contained in the Code.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt is only in a case where the Magistrate is of the opinion that it may be necessary to sentence the accused for a term exceeding one year that the complaint shall be tried as a summons trial.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, considering the the responses of various High Courts, the Court noticed that the conversion by the Trial Courts of complaints under Section 138 from summary trial to summons trial is being done mechanically without reasons being recorded.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe result of such conversion of complaints under Section 138 from summary trial to summons trial has been contributing to the delay in disposal of the cases.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Further, the second proviso to Section 143 mandates that the Magistrate has to record an order spelling out the reasons for such conversion. The object of Section 143 of the Act is quick disposal of the complaints under Section 138 by following the procedure prescribed for summary trial under the Code, to the extent possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discretion conferred on the Magistrate by the second proviso to Section 143 is to be exercised with due care and caution, after recording reasons for converting the of the complaint from summary trial to summons trial. Otherwise, the purpose for which Section 143 of the Act has been introduced would be defeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listing the matter for further consideration after 8 weeks, the Court concluded:<\/p>\n

1) The High Courts to issue practice directions to the Magistrates to record reasons before converting trial of complaints under Section 138 of the Act from summary trial to summons trial.<\/p>\n

2) Inquiry shall be conducted on receipt of complaints under Section 138 of the Act to arrive at sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused, when such accused resides beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the court.<\/p>\n

3) For the conduct of inquiry under Section 202 of the Code, evidence of witnesses on behalf of the complainant shall be permitted to be taken on affidavit. In suitable cases, the Magistrate can restrict the inquiry to examination of documents without insisting for examination of witnesses.<\/p>\n

4) Suitable amendments be made to the Act for provision of one trial against a person for multiple offences under Section 138 of the Act committed within a period of 12 months, notwithstanding the restriction in Section 219 of the Code.<\/p>\n

5) The High Courts to issue practice directions to the Trial Courts to treat service of summons in one complaint under Section 138 forming part of a transaction, as deemed service in respect of all the complaints filed before the same court relating to dishonour of cheques issued as part of the said transaction.<\/p>\n

6) Trial Courts have no inherent power to review or recall the issue of summons. However, this does not affect the power of the Trial Court under Section 322 of the Code to revisit the order of issue of process in case it is brought to the court\u2019s notice that it lacks jurisdiction to try the complaint.<\/p>\n

7) Section 258 of the Code is not applicable to complaints under Section 138 of the Act. To conclusively deal with this aspect, amendment to the Act empowering the Trial Courts to reconsider\/recall summons in respect of complaints under Section 138 shall be considered by the Committee constituted by an order of this Court dated 10.03.2021.<\/p>\n

On 10.03.2021, a Committee with Hon\u2019ble Mr. Justice R.C. Chavan, former Judge of the Bombay High Court, as the Chairman was formed to consider various suggestions that are made for arresting the explosion of the judicial docket<\/em>.<\/p>\n

8) All other points, which have been raised by the Amici Curiae in their preliminary report and written submissions and not considered herein, shall be the subject matter of deliberation by the aforementioned Committee. Any other issue relating to expeditious disposal of complaints under Section 138 of the Act shall also be considered by the Committee.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned directions came in the case relating to \u201cExpeditious Trial of Cases under Section 138 of N.I. Act 1881\u201d in the light of the humongous pendency of complaints under the said provision.<\/p>\n

The preliminary report submitted by the Amici Curiae showed that as on 31.12.2019, the total number of criminal cases pending was 2.31 crores, out of which 35.16 lakh pertained to Section 138 of the Act<\/strong>. The reasons for the backlog of cases, according to the Amici Curiae, is that while there is a steady increase in the institution of complaints every year, the rate of disposal does not match the rate of institution of complaints.<\/p>\n

[In Re: EXPEDITIOUS TRIAL OF CASES UNDER SECTION 138 OF N.I. ACT 1881, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 325<\/b><\/a>, decided on 16.04.2021]<\/p>\n

\n

Appearances before the Court by:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amici Curiae: Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra and advocate K. Parameshwar<\/p>\n

Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India and Vikramjit Banerjee, Additional Solicitor General of India,<\/p>\n

Advocate Ramesh Babu for the Reserve Bank of India<\/p>\n

Advocate Dr. Lalit Bhasin for the Indian Banks\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSuch conversion of complaints under Section 138 from summary trial to summons trial has been contributing to the delay in disposal of the cases.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":243203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,38282],"tags":[17041,5111,23584,36638,45715],"class_list":["post-247287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casebriefs","category-decisions-of-the-constitution-benches-of-the-supreme-court","tag-negotiable-instruments-act","tag-pendency-of-cases","tag-section-138-ni-act","tag-summary-trial","tag-summon-trial"],"yoast_head":"\nNo more "mechanical" conversion of complaints under Section 138 NI Act from summary to summons trial; Magistrates "must" record reasons: Supreme Court | SCC Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/04\/18\/no-more-mechanical-conversion-of-complaints-under-section-138-ni-act-from-summary-to-summons-trial-magistrates-must-record-reasons-supreme-court\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No more "mechanical" conversion of complaints under Section 138 NI Act from summary to summons trial; 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These are: The Magistrates having jurisdiction to try offences under the Negotiable Instruments At, 1881 shall record\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hot Off The Press"","block_context":{"text":"Hot Off The Press","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/news\/hot_off_the_press\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":260872,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/01\/31\/section-138-ni-act-11\/","url_meta":{"origin":247287,"position":1},"title":"Appellate Courts where appeals are pending against judgments in complaint under S. 138 NI Act to make an effort to settle dispute through mediation: Bom HC issues Practice Directions","author":"Bhumika Indulia","date":"January 31, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In compliance with the Supreme Court's decision dated 16-4-2021, passed in (2021) 10 SCC 598 \u201cIn Re: Expeditious Trial of Cases under Section 138 of Negotiable Instrument Act 1881\u201d, the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court has issued the following practice directions: - 1. The magistrates having jurisdiction to try\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hot Off The Press"","block_context":{"text":"Hot Off The Press","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/news\/hot_off_the_press\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":259301,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/12\/30\/yearly-round-up-2021-supreme-court-constitution-bench\/","url_meta":{"origin":247287,"position":2},"title":"Yearly Round-up 2021| Supreme Court Constitution Bench","author":"Editor","date":"December 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Unlike the year 2020, the Supreme Court Constitution Bench has functioned limitedly in the year 2021, with the number of judgments delivered by the Constitution Bench being three. As we bid adieu to the year 2021, here is a brief recap of all the developments advanced by the Constitution Bench\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Briefs"","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/MicrosoftTeams-image-13.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/MicrosoftTeams-image-13.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/MicrosoftTeams-image-13.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/MicrosoftTeams-image-13.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/MicrosoftTeams-image-13.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":221639,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2019\/11\/01\/del-limitation-provided-under-s-468-crpc-not-applicable-to-s-138-ni-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":247287,"position":3},"title":"Del HC | Limitation provided under S. 468 CrPC not applicable to S. 138 NI Act","author":"Bhumika Indulia","date":"November 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Delhi High Court:\u00a0Suresh Kumar Kait, J., dismissed a criminal petition wherein the petitioner sought quashing of the summoning order passed by the Metropolitan Magistrate and also the criminal complaint under Section 138 read with 142 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. The petitioner represented by Ehraz Zafar, Akash Tyagi and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Briefs"","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":361844,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2025\/09\/27\/supreme-court-guidelines-tackle-cheque-bouncing-case-backlog-district-courts\/","url_meta":{"origin":247287,"position":4},"title":"Supreme Court issues extensive guidelines to tackle massive backlog of cheque bouncing cases under NI Act in the District Courts","author":"Sucheta","date":"September 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Court also pointed out that service of summons on the accused in a complaint filed under Section 138 of the NI Act continues to be one of the main reasons for the delay in disposal of the complaints.","rel":"","context":"In "Case Briefs"","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"cheque bouncing case","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/cheque-bouncing-case.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/cheque-bouncing-case.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/cheque-bouncing-case.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/cheque-bouncing-case.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":162244,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2017\/10\/07\/define-categories-under-section-138-ni-act-where-proceedings-can-be-conducted-online-sc-tells-hcs\/","url_meta":{"origin":247287,"position":5},"title":"Define categories under Section 138 NI Act where proceedings can be conducted \u2018online\u2019; SC tells HCs","author":"Prachi Bhardwaj","date":"October 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Supreme Court: In the case where the question as to how proceedings for an offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 can be regulated where the accused is willing to deposit the cheque amount, the bench of AK Goel and UU Lalit, JJ held that Section 143\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Briefs"","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Supreme-Court_Colour.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Supreme-Court_Colour.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Supreme-Court_Colour.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Supreme-Court_Colour.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Supreme-Court_Colour.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}