Rajya Sabha adopts motion to withdraw bill on cheque bounce cases

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha today adopted a motion to withdraw a bill on which an ordinance was issued last month to enable lakhs of persons file cheque bounce cases in the place where the cheque was presented for payment and not the place of issue.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved the motion for withdrawal of the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2015 for further amending it, amid ruckus in the House over the Lalit Modi controversy.

The motion was adopted by a voice vote. The bill was passed by Lok Sabha on May 13 this year and was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on the same day.

On June 10, the Union Cabinet cleared an ordinance to further amend the Negotiable Instruments Act to enable filing of cheque bounce cases in the place where the cheque was presented for clearance or payment and not the place of issue.

There are an estimated 18 lakh people facing cheque bounce cases across the country.

The ordinance was necessitated as a bill to help the litigant in a cheque bounce case was passed by Lok Sabha in earlier this year but it could not go through the other House.

Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had said the Supreme Court had passed a judgement that if a cheque was received from someone and it bounces, then the jurisdiction for initiating action lies in the state where it was issued.

"There are 18 lakh such cases in various courts... Government had brought a Bill in this regard in Parliament. Rajya Sabha could not pass it. So, to give relief to these people, government has brought this ordinance," he had said.

Gadkari also said that if there were three cases of bounced cheques against one person, then all these cases could be brought to one place and clubbed.