Practice Areas
NI Act Recoveries & Other Commercial Matters
Cheque dishonour and allied recoveries, taken on where they sit with the commercial file rather than as a volume practice.
Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act is a recovery tool with a criminal procedure wrapped around it. It is useful when the paper is a cheque issued towards a legally enforceable debt, the statutory notice is in time, and the complainant can prove the debt. It is a poor substitute for a civil suit or an MSME reference when the underlying liability is itself in dispute.
What this covers
- Complaints under Section 138 and related NI Act provisions before the Delhi courts
- Statutory demand notices, condonation, and the limitation traps around presentation and notice
- Defence of accused companies and signatories — vicarious liability, authorised signatory, and “account closed” cases
- Compounding and structured settlements
- Allied commercial recoveries that travel with the cheque: invoices, acknowledgements, and summary suits
Typical instructions
A supplier holding cheques issued against running bills; a director named in a complaint who was not in charge of the company at the relevant time; a file that should have been an MSME reference and was instead run only as a 138 complaint.
How the work is approached
The cheque is not the case. The legally enforceable debt is the case. Where the complainant is an MSME, the Facilitation Council and Section 16 interest are considered in parallel. Where the accused has a genuine dispute on the underlying contract, the 138 court is told so — it is not a commercial court in disguise.