BJP MP demands stricter law against cheque bounching

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is advocating for digital economy, the country is suffering from many corrupt practices including that of deliberate cheque bouncing incidents. Though the government has made the complaint filing process easier under the Negotiable Instruments (Amend) Act, 2015, however, almost 18 lakh cases have been pending for five years across the country.

Even people are not bothered because they know that complainants would not bother travelling far to file their complaint and follow up the cases. But in the last year, the government allowed the complainants to file their complaints in their respective cities. Due to the prolonged process, sometimes people don't go for legal remedy and opt for out-of-court settlement.

Thus, BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab Shwait Malik raked up the issue on Wednesday in the Upper House and demanded more stringent law for the corrupt practice. While talking to Millennium Post, Malik mentioned, "The deliberate cheque bouncing is very common and a corrupt practice. Especially, old people get victimised. They rely on people and they get cheated through cheque bouncing. Therefore, I urged for more stringent law to curb the unholy intention."

The Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act was passed by Parliament in its winter session that concluded in December 2015. The ordinance to the Act was promulgated in June 2015.

"According to the section 138 of the Act, the offender would have to deposit the amount after the judgment comes out and will be sent to judicial custody for a minimum three months, but I demanded for quick action. The alleged offender will have to deposit some amount before the court proceeding starts," he added further.

"The defaulters get the benefit of considerable time and relief due to tedious legal procedures whereas on the other hand the victims are left with no choice but to compromise. This menace plays havoc in the lives of businessmen to the extent that they resort to suicide," Malik also mentioned.

Though strong banking laws allow banks to take immediate action against defaulters for recovery through auctions but some people lose the loan money taken from banks to the customers who grab their money by cheque bouncing and these real culprits escape from strict action due to long legal procedures. "But the existing weak law against the cheque bouncers does not propel people to use digital transactions voluntarily," the MP also asserted.

At the same time, he also mentioned that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley convinced him with his proposal and assured quick action.

However, till now lot of cases of cheque bouncings were withdrawn due to confusion over jurisdiction. Such cases tend to go on for a long time. There are estimated two million cases of cheque bouncing in courts, of varying amounts.