CAIT writes to Finance Minister to form fast track court to deal with bounced cheques cases

New Delhi, Jan 6 (KNN) The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to form fast track court to deal with the cases related to bounced cheques.

CAIT on Thursday, shot a letter to Finance Minister seeking her attention, in rapid increase of cases like dishonoured cheques.

The trader’s body further asserted that the entire trading community in the country, is deeply perturbed over cheque dishonouring and much long period to obtain justice from the courts.

''The CAIT has suggested the Finance Minister for formation of fast track courts to deal with the case of bounced cheques as an immediate option to effectively deal with this critical issue besides bringing amendments in section 138 of The Negotiable Instrument Act, 1881,'' CAIT added.

Quoting 213th Law Commission Report which says that there are about 40 lakh cheque bounce cases, CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that it makes clear that this single category of cases constitutes a major portion of all pending cases in the judicial system.

Both Bhartia and Khandelwal said that as such there is an urgent need to look into Section 138 of The Negotiable Instrument Act, 1881 and require effective steps by the Government to restore creditability of issuing cheques.

"Besides bringing amendments in the above said Act for making more stringent provisions, we suggest that as an immediate measure, the government should set up Fast Track Courts at each District level in the Country to dispose of the cheque bounce cases in a time bound manner,'' they said.

They further said that it is astonishing to note that in cases of dishonoured cheques, the highest average pendency is seen in Gujarat, with cases pending on average for 3,608 days (a little less than 10 years), whereas Himachal Pradesh has the lowest average pendency of 967 days (nearly two years and nine months).

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