Legal Reference Library

The Gujarat High Court, in Harshad Manubhai Malavaiya vs State Of Gujarat, held that husband is not liable for a cheque issued by the wife in her personal capacity. In the instant matter, Justice JB Pardiwala examined the question whether the petitioner can be made vicariously liable under Section 138 for the cheque dishonoured which were issued by his wife in personal capacity. Relying on the Supreme Court’s judgment in the matter of M/s Aparna A Shah vs M/s Sheth Developers Pvt Ltd  and considering the language used in Section 138 and taking note of background agreement pursuant to which a cheque is issued by more than one person, this court held that it is only the “drawer” of the cheque who can be made liable for the penal action under the provisions of the NI Act. The normal rule in the cases involving criminal liability is against vicarious liability. To put it clear, no one is to be held criminally liable for an act of another. In the above judgment, the Supreme Court ...

If the spouse has not invested in a property and is merely a co-holder, then on sale of such property, she cannot be liable for tax on capital gains, the Mumbai Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has recently ruled. The ITAT order will help many taxpayers as married couples are increasingly opting for property registration in joint names, even if only one of them is the investor. Anil Harish, an advocate specializing in real estate, said: "Co-holding of property is popular. Often the name of a spouse (say wife) is added to provide a sense of comfort, to ensure ease of succession on death of the partner or other reasons such as facilitating voting in a general body meeting of the housing society." The ITAT gave the order on Wednesday while hearing a case of a medical professional, Vandana Bhulchandani. An income-tax (I-T) officer, based on information in his possession, noted that Bhulchandani had not disclosed the capital gains arising from the Rs 2.12-crore sale of a...

The Supreme Court of India has held in a recent judgment Mainuddin Abdul Sattar Shaikh vs. Vijay D Salvi (Criminal Appeal No. 1472 of 2009), that the accused in a proceeding under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act can be made liable there under even if the Company had not been named in the notice or the complaint, as on facts it held that there was no necessity for the complainant to prove that the said accused was in charge of the affairs of the company, by virtue of the position he held. The Court drew and applied the analogy from the proposition of law laid down in P.J. Agro Tech Limited and Ors.  Vs. Water Base Limited [(2010) 12 SCC 146] that ‘where the cheque is drawn by the employee of the appellant company on his personal account, even if it be for discharging dues of the appellant-company and its Directors, the appellant-company and its Directors cannot be made liable under Section 138’ The aforesaid ruling of the Apex Court came in the following fact situation...

PETITIONER: B.V. NAGARAJU Vs. RESPONDENT: M/S. ORIENTAL INSURANCE CO. LTD.DIVISIONAL OFFICE, HASSAN DATE OF JUDGMENT: 20/05/1996 In this appeal by special leave, the question of importance arising therein is whether the alleged breach of carrying humans in a goods' vehicle more than the number permitted in terms of the insurance policy, is so fundamental a breach so as to afford ground to the insurer to eschew liability altogether? Ancillary to the question is the poser : whether the terms of the policy of insurance need be construed strictly or be read down to advance the main purpose of the contract as viewed by this Court in Skandia Insurance Co. Ltd. vs. Kokilaben Chandravadan & Ors. [1987 2 SCC 654]? It is plain from the terms of the Insurance Policy that the insured vehicle was entitled to carry 6 workmen, excluding the driver. If those 6 workmen when travelling in the vehicle, are assumed not to have increased any risk from the point of vi...

Guarantors not responsible for prior transactions unless specifically mentioned in Guarantee document. Central Bank Of India vs Virudhunagar Steel Rolling Mills ... on 29 December, 2015 Bench: Vikramajit Sen, Shiva Kirti Singh REPORTABLE IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVILAPPELLATE JURISDICTION CIVIL APPEAL No. 3654 OF 2006 CENTRAL BANK OF INDIA ... APPELLANT Vs. VIRUDHUNAGAR STEEL ROLLING MILLS LTD. & ORS. ... RESPONDENTS 6 The decision in Sita Ram Gupta v. Punjab National Bank (2008) 5 SCC 711 is of no advantage to the Appellant Bank. That decision concerns the possibility of a guarantor revoking his continuing guarantee, with the objective of escaping his liability. This is not the case before us inasmuch as the defence of Respondent Nos. 2 to 4 is that they had agreed to stand surety only for transactions after 30.8.1974. Our attention was also drawn to B. G. Vasantha v. Corporation Bank, Mangalore (2005) 10 SCC 215 as also M.S. Anirudhan v. Thomcos Bank Ltd....

The Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania developed interpretation of provisions of the Tort law providing more guarantees to the employee injured at work in case when company (the employer) went bankrupt and extended regulations of company director liability. The Supreme Court found that in case of indirect liability (company is liable for the damages caused by its employees) and liquidation of such Company due to bankruptcy the damage incurred to injured person shall not be left because of Company bankruptcy. An employee who was injured at work shall have right to direct his request of damage compensation to the person who caused the damage. In this particular case it is the director of the Company. This interpretation is based on Principles of European Tort Law providing for liability for auxiliaries. As to the merits of the case, the employee was injured at work and the director of the Company was found guilty for the criminal offence related to labor safety and failure to en...

The government must pay for the negligence of its officers and it cannot claim "sovereign immunity" like in the old days, the Supreme Court has stated while imposing compensation on the authorities who failed to register three fishing vessels, causing loss to owners. The vessels were bought by Sancheta Food Products in an auction. They had to be registered under the Merchant Shipping Act for taking them to the high seas for fishing. However, the officers were taking contrary stands regarding the rules applicable to the vessels, causing heavy loss to the firm. It sued the government in the Calcutta high court. It imposed compensation on the government for its "contradictory and dilatory" stands. The government appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the high court judgment. It elaborated on the "vicarious liability" of the state for the actions of its officers and diluted the immunity of the government in negligence cases. Citing earlier decisions rejec...

A developer cannot escape his contractual obligation towards the buyer in a developed property by claiming that he had outsourced the development work to another builder, the Pune district consumer disputes redressal forum has held. In a recent order, the forum, headed by president V P Utpat, ordered a construction firm in Mundhwa to deliver the possession of a 180 sq ft shopping block to the complainant, Meena Harish Bhujbal, with whom he had a registered sale agreement. "As an alternative, if the developer expresses his inability to deliver possession of the block then he should pay the prevailing market price," the forum, which also comprised Mohan Patankar and Kshitija Kulkarni as members, ordered. The three-member bench further directed the firm, Sai Constructions, to pay Rs 25,000 damages to Bhujbal on account of deficiency in service by not delivering possession of the shopping block as promised and causing physical and mental agony to the complainant. The damage...

Himachal Pradesh High Court- Considering the appeal with regard to grant of compensation to the claimants, a bench of Mansoor Ahmad Mir CJ, dismissed the appeal and held that the rights of victims of vehicular accidents cannot be defeated on flimsy grounds and the courts should not succumb to the procedural wrangles and tangles, technicalities and mystic maybes which in any way defeat the rights of the claimants. The Court observed that the aim and object of granting compensation is for the benefit of the victims/ persons, from whom the source of dependency has been taken away and who have lost their source of income and are deprived of the love and affection and hope of future because of the death of their kith and kin. The Court further noted that the Courts or the Tribunals have to decide such matters as early as possible, that too, summarily in terms of the mandate of Chapter XII of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 which provides mechanism to determine claim petitions and appeals. The...

1) Nagawwa v. Veeranna Shivalingappa Konjalgi [1976 (3) SCC 736] 2) State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal [1992 Supp. (1) SCC 335] 3) Rupan Deol Bajaj v. Kanwar Pal 8 of 14 Singh Gill [1995 (6) SCC 194] 4) Pratibha Rani v. Suraj Kumar [1985 (2) SCC 370] 5) Indian Oil Corpn. v. NEPC India Ltd. [2006 (6) SCC 736], at page 747 6) Madhavrao Jiwajirao Scindia v. Sambhajirao Chandrojirao Angre 7) State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal 8) Rupan Deol Bajaj v. Kanwar Pal Singh Gill 9) Central Bureau of Investigation v. Duncans Agro Industries Ltd. 10) State of Bihar v. Rajendra Agrawalla 11) Rajesh Bajaj v. State NCT of Delhi 12) Medchl Chemicals & Pharma (P) Ltd. v. Biological E. Ltd. 13) Hridaya Ranjan Prasad Verma v. State of Bihar 14) M. Krishnan v. Vijay Singh 15) Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd. v. Mohd. Sharaful Haque. IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPEAL No..............OF 2009 (Arising out of SLP (Crl.) No. 6482...

Vijayander Kumar v. State of Rajasthan, (2014) 3 SCC 389  Criminal Law  Criminal Procedure Code, 1973  S. 482 - Quashment - Criminal as well as civil liability - A given set of facts may make out a civil wrong as also a criminal offence and only because a civil remedy may also be available to informant/ complainant that itself cannot be a ground to quash a criminal proceeding - Real test is whether allegations in complaint disclose a criminal offence or not, (2014) 3 SCC 389-A    Criminal Law  Criminal Procedure Code, 1973  S. 482 - Quashment - Informant firm was to receive a sum of Rs 47,28,115.80 from appellants - Appellants through a demand draft for Rs 10 lakhs and returned cotton yarn worth Rs 13,26,560 settled the dues in part and for the remaining dues they persuaded the informant to accept four post-dated cheques issued by new Director SS - When informant presented cheque for a sum of Rs 5 lakhs through his bank, said cheque was di...

   The Bank of Bihar Ltd. v. Dr. Damodar Prasad & Anr., AIR 1969  297 Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Bombay v. The Official Liquidator, High Court, Ernakulam & Anr., AIR 1982 SC 1497 Union Bank of India v. Manku Narayana, AIR 1987 SC 1078 State Bank of India v. Messrs. Indexport Registered & Ors., AIR 1992 SC 1740 State Bank of India v. M/s. Saksaria Sugar Mills Ltd. & Ors., AIR 1986 SC 868 Industrial Investment Bank of India Ltd. v. Biswasnath Jhunjhunwala, (2009) 9 SCC 478 United Bank of India v. Satyawati Tondon & Ors., AIR 2010 SC 3413) Lachhman Dass v. Jagat Ram & Ors., (2007) 10 SCC 448; Narmada Bachao Andolan v. State of Madhya Pradesh & Anr., AIR 2011 SC 1589 ( IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CIVIL APPEAL NO. 6204 OF 2009 Ram Kishun & Ors. ...Appellants Versus State of U.P. & Ors. ...Respondents J U D G M E N T We have considered the rival submissions made by learne...