Your dates
Last day to present the cheque
Enter the date on the cheque.
Three months from the cheque date (RBI direction, Section 138 proviso (a)). Six months for a cheque dated before 1 April 2012.
Last day to send the demand notice
Enter the date you received the return memo.
30 days from receiving the return memo (Section 138 proviso (b))
Last day the drawer can pay
Enter the date the drawer received the notice.
15 days from receiving the notice (Section 138 proviso (c))
Cause of action arises, earliest day to file
Enter the date the drawer received the notice.
The day after the 15 days end. A complaint filed earlier is premature.
Last day to file the complaint
Enter the date the drawer received the notice.
One month from the cause of action (Section 142(1)(b))
Missed the last day to file? Under the proviso to Section 142(1)(b), the court may still take the complaint if you show sufficient cause for the delay. An advocate has to make that application.
How the dates are counted
- "Within 30 days" and "15 days" leave out the day you start from. The count begins the next day (Section 9, General Clauses Act, 1897). A memo received on 1 March gives a last notice day of 31 March.
- A month is a calendar month, not 30 days (Section 3(35), General Clauses Act). One month from 15 October ends on 15 November. When the later month has no such date, the period ends on that month's last day, so one month from 31 January ends on 28 February, or 29 February in a leap year. The Supreme Court counted months this way in Bibi Salma Khatoon v. State of Bihar, (2001) 7 SCC 197.
- For the complaint, the day the cause of action arises is left out. The Supreme Court held this in Saketh India Ltd v. India Securities Ltd, (1999) 3 SCC 1, and a bench of three judges confirmed it in Econ Antri Ltd v. Rom Industries Ltd, (2014) 11 SCC 769.
- The three months for presenting the cheque are counted the same way, so a cheque dated 15 January can be presented on 15 April. A bank's clearing system may count the last day differently, so present the cheque a few days before it where you can.
- The cause of action arises the day after the drawer's 15 days end. That is the earliest day the complaint can be filed.
- The calculator does not know court holidays. If the court is closed on a last day, the law generally allows filing on the next day it opens (Section 10, General Clauses Act).
- If the drawer refused the notice or it came back unclaimed, courts usually treat it as served. The date they take can differ, so confirm it with an advocate.
What the Act says
The text of Sections 138 and 142 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, as published on India Code, the Government of India's official site for central Acts.
Section 138. Dishonour of cheque for insufficiency, etc., of funds in the account.
Where any cheque drawn by a person on an account maintained by him with a banker for payment of any amount of money to another person from out of that account for the discharge, in whole or in part, of any debt or other liability, is returned by the bank unpaid, either because of the amount of money standing to the credit of that account is insufficient to honour the cheque or that it exceeds the amount arranged to be paid from that account by an agreement made with that bank, such person shall be deemed to have committed an offence and shall, without prejudice to any other provision of this Act, be punished with imprisonment for a term which may be extended to two years, or with fine which may extend to twice the amount of the cheque, or with both:
Provided that nothing contained in this section shall apply unless
- (a) the cheque has been presented to the bank within a period of six months from the date on which it is drawn or within the period of its validity, whichever is earlier;
- (b) the payee or the holder in due course of the cheque, as the case may be, makes a demand for the payment of the said amount of money by giving a notice; in writing, to the drawer of the cheque, within thirty days of the receipt of information by him from the bank regarding the return of the cheque as unpaid; and
- (c) the drawer of such cheque fails to make the payment of the said amount of money to the payee or, as the case may be, to the holder in due course of the cheque, within fifteen days of the receipt of the said notice.
The semicolon after "notice" in clause (b) is as India Code prints it. The Explanation at the end of the section, on what "debt or other liability" means, is left out here.
Section 142. Cognizance of offences.
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974),
- (a) no court shall take cognizance of any offence punishable under section 138 except upon a complaint, in writing, made by the payee or, as the case may be, the holder in due course of the cheque;
- (b) such complaint is made within one month of the date on which the cause of action arises under clause (c) of the proviso to section 138:
- Provided that the cognizance of a complaint may be taken by the Court after the prescribed period, if the complainant satisfies the Court that he had sufficient cause for not making a complaint within such period;
- (c) no court inferior to that of a Metropolitan Magistrate or a Judicial Magistrate of the first class shall try any offence punishable under section 138.
Sub-section (2), on which court hears the case, is left out here.
Three months, not six: for a cheque dated 1 April 2012 or later, the Reserve Bank of India has directed banks not to pay it if it is presented "beyond the period of three months from the date of such instrument". That is the validity period proviso (a) refers to. RBI circular RBI/2011-12/251, DBOD.AML BC.No.47/14.01.001/2011-12, 4 November 2011
What the notice must say, and how to send it: Cheque bounce legal notice guide