1 - Euro Pratik Ispat (India) Pvt. Ltd. Through Its Director- Himanshu Shrivastav, S/o v. 1 - Majestic Legends Sports Pvt. Ltd. Having Its Registered Address At- 228 Trade
Case Details
1 2025:CGHC:14521 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR CRMP No. 1077 of 2025 1 - Euro Pratik Ispat (India) Pvt. Ltd. Through Its Director- Himanshu Shrivastav, S/o Ramnath Shrivastav, Aged About 56 Years, Having Registered Office At Gala No. 216, Building No. 3b, Rahul Mittal Industrial Estate, Kurla Road, Andheri (E), Mumbai City- 400059, M.H. And Having Another Office At Farishta Complex Raipur- 492001, C.G. (Age Wrongly Mentioned As 53 Years In Annexure P/1) (Complainant) ... Petitioner(s) versus 1 - Majestic Legends Sports Pvt. Ltd. Having Its Registered Address At- 228 Trade Centre, Bandra Kurla Complex, Opp. Mittal Building, Bandra-East, Mumbai-400051 (M.H.) Having Another Address At Fi. No. 707, Building 2/a, Raju Nagar, Subhash Road, Thane Mumbai City (M.H.) (Accused Persons)
Legal Reasoning
2 - Mr. Janak Shrirang Tekale Director- Majestic Legends Sports Pvt. Ltd., S/o Mr. Shrirang Raghunath Tekale, Having Address At Anant Smruti, A/8 Datta Nagar Road, Behind Bharati Vidyapith, Katraj, Pune- 411046 (M.H.) 3 - Mr. Bhushan Manohar Malandkar Director- Majestic Legends Sports Pvt. Ltd., S/o Manohar Malandkar, Having Address At 707, Rajvaibhav Nx, Wing-2a, Subhash Road, Near Infront Church, Raju, Nagar, Dombivli West, Kalyan, Thane, Vishnunagar- 421202 (M.H.) 4 - Mrs. Manisha Shantilal Hemraj Jain Director- Majestic Legends Sports Pvt. Ltd., D/o Shantilal Hemraj Jain, Having Address At 76/80, Jail Road, Ratna Deep Jewellers, Shop No. 1, 2, 3, 4 A Navroji Hill Road, Dongri East, P.O. Chinchbunder, Mumbai, (M.H.) 2 5 - Mrs. Nisha Tapadia Director- Majestic Legends Sports Pvt. Ltd., D/o Mr. Nand Kishore Jaju, Having Address At Near M.E.S. College, H. No. 14, Upper Orchand, Zuarimnagar, S.O., South Goa- 403726 (Goa) ... Respondent(s) For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Sourabh Kale on behalf of Mr. Trivikram Nayak, For Respondent(s) : Advocate Hon’ble Shri Justice Arvind Kumar Verma, Judge Order on Board 26/03/2025 1. The petitioner has filed the present petition under Section 528 of BNSS, 2023 with regard to the complaint case no. 5684 of 2023 which was filed on 10.08.2023 before the learned Court of JMFC, Raipur, C.G. against the respondent for offence under Section 138 of N.I. Act, 1881. the petitioner seeks exercise of inherent jurisdiction of the Court to expedite the trial in order to secure the ends of justice and the prevent the abuse of the process of Court. 2. Brief facts of the case is that Petitioner is a private limited company under Companies Act 1956 having CIN U51100MH1993PTC072210 with offices at aforementioned address and Himanshu Shrivastav as its Director who has been authorised by the Petitioner company vide Board resolution dated 24/07/2023 to file the instant case. A copy of Board resolution dated 24/07/2023 is being annexed herewith as ANNEXURE P/1. Respondent No. 1 is a private limited company engaged in the business of recreational, cultural, and sporting activities and 3 ancillary businesses with office at aforementioned address and has Respondent No. 2 to 5 as its Directors. Respondents are engaged in conducting annual T20 cricket tournament with retired legendary cricketers in 'Road Safety World Series' in cricket matches in India and the same is sanctioned by the BCCI and there are 6 international teams wherein the Respondent No. 1 is one of the league owners. The Petitioner and Respondent No. 1 had entered into a Franchisee agreement dated 12/03/2021 as per which the Petitioner was granted ownership and management of one franchisee of the aforementioned world series league for an initial period of 10 years as per the terms and conditions of the agreement. It is also submitted that in partial discharge of the legal liability as per the agreement with regard to Season 1 & 2 of the Road Safety World Series cricket league, the Respondent No. 1 had issued Cheque No. 001250 for a sum of Rs. 35,00,000/- [Rupees Thirty Five Lakhs Only] dated 28/03/2023 drawn on ICICI Bank SV Road Branch, Andheri W. Mumbai in favour of the Petitioner and when the Petitioner had submitted the same in his Axis Bank Account at Devendra Nagar Branch, Raipur, C.G. the same cheque had been returned vide Return Memo dated 24/05/2023 with the following remark- 'Payment Stopped by Drawer. Petitioner had approached the Respondents regarding the dishonour of the cheque issued towards the existing legal liability however no heed was paid and subsequently legal notice dated 22/06/2023 had been issued by the Petitioner under Section 4 138 of NI Act against Respondents wherein Respondent No.s 2, 4, & 5 had received the same on 01/07/2023, 27/06/2023 & 28/06/2023 implying that the said persons were fully aware about the dishonour of the said cheque in question and cleverly and cunningly despite bearing the registered address, the Respondent No. 1 & 3 deliberately avoided the receipt of the notice. Accordingly, when within the prescribed time the Respondents failed to make good their payments, the Petitioner had no option left other than to institute the instant Complaint case vide Complaint dated 10/08/2023 before the Learned Trial Court. A copy of the complaint dated 10/08/2023 filed by the Petitioner before the Learned Trial Court along with requisite Affidavit is being annexed herewith as ANNEXURE P/2. Learned Trial Court vide order dated 10/08/2023 had registered the complaint filed by Petitioner as Complaint Case No. 5684 of 2023 it had also issued summons against the Respondents and the case was next fixed on 11/12/2023. Thereafter, on several occasions due to non- appearance of Respondents the case has been adjourned one way or the other since its inception on 10/08/2023, as can be seen from the order-sheets of Complaint Case No. 5684 of 2023. That, it was only on 01/05/2024 that some of the Respondents had appeared before the Learned Trial Court, however, immediately after the said hearing until now the case has been fixed for 'Apradh Vivran' by the Learned Trial Court as time and again the accused persons are not present before the Learned Trial Court. It 5 is furthermore submitted that most recently the instant complaint case was listed on 14/02/2025 for 'Apradh Vivran' and again application u/s 317 CrPC had been moved for non-appearance and the case was fixed for 10/03/2025 and again on 10/03/2025 the case was fixed for 'Apradh Vivran' however owing to absence of the Respondents the next date of hearing was given as 25/03/02025 wherein again it is most likely to get adjourned due to non-appearance of Respondents/Accused persons. A copy of entire order-sheets pertaining to Complaint Case No. 5684/2023 pending before Learned Trial Court along with latest order-sheets is being annexed herewith as ANNEXURE P/3. The aforesaid Complaint case is pending before the Learned Trial Court since 10/08/2023 and for more than past 1.5 years, the Respondent has unnecessarily tried to cause delay and hamper the progress of the Trial and till date there is no substantial progress in Trial. Therefore, it is a fit case for exercise of the inherent powers of the Hon'ble High Court to expedite the Trial in order to secure the ends of justice and also to prevent the abuse of the process of court. Hence, the Trial pending in Complaint Case No. 5684 of 2023 before Learned Trial Court should be expedited and completed within a stipulated time-frame. 3. Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that right to speedy trial is an intrinsic right of the parties and inordinate delay in Trial would ultimately hamper the Criminal justice system. In the matter in hand the case is pending since 10.08.2023, i.e. almost more 6 than 2 years and any further delay would unnecessarily prolong the litigation. Time and again when the case is fixed for Apradh Vivran, for one reason or another the matter has been adjourned majorly due to the absence of Respondents which is causing inordinate delay in trial. He placed his reliance upon the decision rendered by the Supreme Court in Makwana Mangaldas Tulsidas Vs. State of Gujarat (2020) 4 SCC 695. 4. I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner and perused the record with utmost circumspection. 5. Perusal of record shows that Respondent No. 1 is a private limited company engaged in the business of recreational, cultural, and sporting activities and ancillary businesses with office at aforementioned address and has Respondent No. 2 to 5 as its Directors. Respondents are engaged in conducting annual T20 cricket tournament with retired legendary cricketers in 'Road Safety World Series' in cricket matches in India and the same is sanctioned by the BCCI and there are 6 international teams wherein the Respondent No. 1 is one of the league owners. The Petitioner and Respondent No. 1 had entered into a Franchisee agreement dated 12/03/2021 as per which the Petitioner was granted ownership and management of one franchisee of the aforementioned world series league for an initial period of 10 years as per the terms and conditions of the agreement. It is also submitted that in partial discharge of the legal liability as per the agreement with regard to Season 1 & 2 of the Road Safety World 7 Series cricket league, the Respondent No. 1 had issued Cheque No. 001250 for a sum of Rs. 35,00,000/- [Rupees Thirty Five Lakhs Only] dated 28/03/2023 drawn on ICICI Bank SV Road Branch, Andheri W. Mumbai in favour of the Petitioner and when the Petitioner had submitted the same in his Axis Bank Account at Devendra Nagar Branch, Raipur, C.G. the same cheque had been returned vide Return Memo dated 24/05/2023 with the following remark- 'Payment Stopped by Drawer. Petitioner had approached the Respondents regarding the dishonour of the cheque issued towards the existing legal liability however no heed was paid and subsequently legal notice dated 22/06/2023 had been issued by the Petitioner under Section 138 of NI Act against Respondents wherein Respondent No.s 2, 4, & 5 had received the same on 01/07/2023, 27/06/2023 & 28/06/2023 implying that the said persons were fully aware about the dishonour of the said cheque in question and cleverly and cunningly despite bearing the registered address, the Respondent No. 1 & 3 deliberately avoided the receipt of the notice. 6. Perusal of the order sheets of the trial court shows that the case was registered on 10.08.2023 and since 13.03.2024 till the date of 10.03.2025 the matter has been pending at the stage of “apradh vivran” and there is no substantial progress. Since the matter relates to the offence under Section 138 of N.I. Act, 1881 and considering the fact that the case is pending since 10.08.2023 and further there is no substantial progress in the case therefore, the 8 learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Raipur, C.G. is directed to conclude the proceedings of the aforementioned complaint case as soon as possible, if there is no legal impediment.
Decision
7. Accordingly, the present petition is disposed off. SD/- (Arvind Kumar Verma) JUDGE Madhurima