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A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held in 2021 that the Magistrate's power to stop proceedings…

In In Re: Expeditious Trial of Cases under Section 138 of N.I. Act, 1881 (decided 16 April 2021), a five-judge Bench held that the power to stop proceedings in summons cases…

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A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held in 2021 that the Magistrate's power to stop proceedings in a summons case instituted otherwise than upon complaint does not apply to complaints under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, and that an earlier decision allowing a court to close section 138 proceedings in this way, once the cheque amount with interest and costs as assessed was paid, did not lay down the correct law. That earlier decision is

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In In Re: Expeditious Trial of Cases under Section 138 of N.I. Act, 1881 (decided 16 April 2021), a five-judge Bench held that the power to stop proceedings in summons cases instituted otherwise than upon complaint (s.258 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, now section 281 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023) does not apply to complaint cases under section 138, and that the contrary findings in M/s. Meters and Instruments Pvt. Ltd. & Anr. v. Kanchan Mehta (2017) do not lay down the correct law. Section 281 of the BNSS reproduces the old provision, so the position is the same today.

K.M. Ibrahim v. K.P. Mohammed, Damodar S. Prabhu v. Sayed Babalal H. and M.P. State Legal Services Authority v. Prateek Jain deal with the compounding of section 138 offences and the costs payable on compounding; none of them was held incorrect by the Constitution Bench.

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