1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR. Criminal Application No. 1230/2010 Shri. Ambe Fashion through Proprietor Sunaina Agrawal and 2 others V/s. M/s. Gimatex Industries Pvt. Ltd. Through Authorised Agent Shri. S. R. Ughade ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Office notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. Court's or Judge's Orders. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr S. V. Akolkar, counsel for the applicant Mr. A. S. Chandurkar, counsel for respondent sole. Coram: A.P. Bhangale, J Dated : 11th July 2011 1. By means of this application, the applicant has prayed to quash and set aside the order dated 07/05/2010, passed by learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Hinganghat, Dist. Wardha, in Criminal Complaint No. 218/2010, whereby it appears that the application filed at Exh. 7 objecting to jurisdiction of learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Hinganghat was rejected by the impugned order. 2. Learned advocate for the applicant made reference to ruling in K. Bhaskaran Vs. Sankaran Vaidhyan Balan and another reported in 1999(4) ALL MR 452 SC, Vishwanath Ramkrishna Patil & another Vs. Ashok Murlidhar Sohar & 2 another reported in 2007(1) ABR (NOC) 114 (BOM), Ahuja Nandkishor Dongre Vs. State of Maharashtra & another reported in 2007(1) Bom.C.R. (Cri) 1031, M/s. Harman Electronics (P) Ltd. & Anr V/s. M/s. National Panasonic India Ltd., reported in AIR 2009 SC 1168 , Shri. Prabhu D. Modi V/s. M/s. Euro Developers Pvt. Ltd., & Anr. reported in 2010 AIR MR (Cri) 2717, and Dhariwal Tobacco Products Ltd. & Ors V/s. State of Maharashtra & Anr. reported in AIR 2009 SC 1032. 3. Learned Advocate while citing above rulings contended that learned trial Magistrate at Hinganghat, District Wardha, had no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the complaint under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act. He contended that the cheque was issued at Ahmedabad in the present case which was drawn upon Bank of Baroda at Ahmedabad and was presented for encashment at Hinganghat and dishonoured with remark “insufficient funds”. Notice of demand was also issued from Hinganghat which was acknowledged at Ahmedabad. The complainant under these circumstances chose to file complaint in the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Hinganghat. 3 4. In the ruling of K. Bhaskaran Vs. Sankaran Vaidhyan Balan and Anr making reference to the ingredients of the offence punishable under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, the Apex Court observed that there can be five localities corresponding to five ingredients and one of the Courts exercising jurisdiction in one of the five local areas can become the place of trial for the offence under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments act. In other words, the complainant can choose any one of those Courts having jurisdiction over any one of the local areas within the territorial limits of which any one of those five acts was done. This legal position was also explained in Smt. Shamshad Begum v. B. Mohammed reported in 2009 CRI.L.J. SC 1304 wherein after making reference to five acts forming ingredients of offence punishable under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, the Apex Court observed that 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 a concatenation of all the above five acts is a sine qua non for the completion of the offence under Section 138 of the Code. Thus, one of the components of the offence is presentation of the cheque for encashment which admittedly in the present case 4 was done at Hinganghat. That being so, looking to the ratio of the above rulings, no fault can be found with the impugned order. Hence, this Criminal Application is dismissed. JUDGE Punde