Cheque dishonour: the three dates that decide your complaint

Commercial · 14 May 2026 · 5 min read

Prosecutions under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act are lost more often on dates than on facts. The statute builds a sequence, and each step has its own clock.

The first date is the return of the cheque unpaid. From receipt of that memo the payee has thirty days to issue a written demand for the amount. The second date is service of that notice. From service — not from dispatch — the drawer has fifteen days to pay. The third date is the expiry of those fifteen days: the offence is complete on that day, and the complaint must be filed within one month of it.

Two practical points follow. Keep proof of service, not merely proof of posting; where the notice is returned unclaimed, the presumption of service is available but must be pleaded and supported by the correct postal documents. And do not file early — a complaint filed before the fifteen days expire is premature and is liable to be dismissed on that ground alone, however strong the underlying debt.

The notice itself should demand the cheque amount specifically. A composite demand that lumps the cheque amount with interest, damages and costs invites the argument that no valid statutory notice was issued at all.

Finally, remember that the criminal complaint is not a substitute for recovery. Where the sum is substantial, a summary suit in parallel is usually the better course, and the two proceedings support one another on the record.