The offence under Sec. 138 of the Act can be completed only with the concatenation of a number of acts. Following are the acts, which are components of the said offence;
1. Drawing of the cheque,
2. Presentation of the cheque to the bank,
3. Returning the cheque unpaid by the drawee bank,
4. Giving notice in writing to the drawer of the cheque demanding payment of the cheque amount.
5. failure of the drawer to make payment within 15 days of the receipt of the notice.
It is not necessary that all the above five acts should have been perpetrated at the same locality . It is possible that each of those five acts could be done at five different localities. But concatenation of all the above five is sine qua non for the completion of the offence under Sec. 138 of the Act.
Signature mismatch does not fall under any of the abovementioned acts. So, if a cheque bounces because of discrepancy in signature, it will not be an offence under S. 138. But if the cheques bounce regularly for signature mismatch, a case may be filed under S 138. If the cheque is accepted after the mismatch is improved and attested by the drawer, the mismatch does not amount to an offence under S 138.
Answered by
tavleen
at
12:17 PM on January 31, 2008