KATHMANDU: A full bench of the Supreme Court has ‘corrected’ a three-year-old ruling that cheque bounce cases do not fall under banking offences. A full bench of Justices Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Anil Kumar Sinha and Sushmalata Mathema reversed the judgment passed by Justices Dambar Bahadur Shahi and Kumar Regmi on Ashad 9, 2076.
Ealier, joint bench of Shahi and Regmi decided that bouncing a cheque is not considered a banking offense, but it is a banking offense only when the cheques are cut and paid, even when there is insufficient funds in the account.
The Supreme Court has corrected this decision, which is against the existing law on banking offences, after three years. The full text of the judgment of the full bench overturning the old judgment of the Supreme Court is yet to come.
Lately, cheque bounce disputes are on the rise. According to Nepal Police, in the financial year 074/75, there were 776 complaints of banking offences, five years later, in 078/79, this number reached 4,590. According to the Police, 80 percent of these cases of banking offenses are related to cheque bounce.