BENGALURU: A son is liable to discharge the liability of his deceased father under the Negotiable Instruments Act as a legal representative if the former has issued a cheque, the Karnataka HC observed in a recent order, reports Vasanth Kumar P.
Allowing a criminal appeal filed by Prasad Raykar from Davanagere, Justice K Natarajan pointed out that under Section 29 of the Act, if the legal representative of the deceased has issued a cheque, then he is liable personally.The judge pointed out that appellant-complainant Raykar stated the accused, BT Dinesh, undertook to repay the amount, paid 10,000 and thereafter issued two cheques towards the rest of the amount.Once the amount was already repaid, the question of taking contention that it is barred debt does not arise and it gets renewed.
The accused, who once paid Rs 10,000 by cash and issued cheque to discharge the liability, is liable for discharging the liability of his father," the judge said.
"In this case, the accused is the son of the deceased, who borrowed the loan from the complainant and the accused agreed to repay and issued cheques.
As a legal representative of the father, the accused is liable to repay the loan," the judge added.
Dinesh's father, Bharamappa, borrowed Rs 2.6 lakh from Raykar on March 7, 2003, for his business and family necessities, and agreed to pay 2% interest per month by executing a promissory note in favour of the complainant.After Bharamappa died, the son paid Rs 10,000 to the complainant on June 10, 2005.
Later, the interest as well as principal amount was calculated at Rs 4.5 lakh and the accused issued two cheques drawn on Vijaya Bank, Davanagere, for Rs 2.25 lakh each, dated June 7, 2006 and July 7, 2006, respectively.
As both cheques got dishonored, Raykar filed a complaint under Negotiable Instruments Act.
The trial court directed him to pay the sum to the complainant.
Dinesh challenged the verdict before the sessions court, which acquitted him.Full report: toi.in