After a cheque bounces, the payee must send a written demand notice within thirty days of receiving the bank's memo of dishonour, the drawer then has fifteen days from receipt of that notice to pay, and if he does not pay the complaint must be filed within one month after those fifteen days end. Those three periods are the spine of a Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act 1881 case; miss the outer dates and the complaint can be dismissed, though the magistrate has power to condone delay for sufficient cause.
This note sets out each period, the date each one runs from, what happens when a notice is returned unclaimed, and the mistakes that sink otherwise good cases.
The three clock periods that decide a cheque bounce case
Section 138 makes the dishonour of a cheque for want of funds, or because the amount exceeds the arrangement with the bank, a criminal offence — but the offence is not complete when the cheque is returned. The statute works through provisos that give the drawer a chance to pay. Each proviso carries its own time limit, and the limits run from different dates.
- The payee must send the demand notice within thirty days of receiving information of the dishonour.
- The drawer then has fifteen days from the receipt of the notice to make the payment.
- The payee must file the complaint within one month of the day on which those fifteen days expire.
Run the dates on a calendar from the day you actually received the return memo, not from the date written on the cheque or the date you presented it. The return memo is the trigger for the first period, and its date is the one the court will ask about.
The thirty-day window to send the notice
The first period is thirty days from the date on which the payee receives information of the dishonour. In practice that is the date the bank hands over the return memo, or the date the payee's bank communicates it. Send the notice by registered post or speed post within that window and keep the postal receipt; the receipt is the proof of the date of despatch.
A notice sent after the thirty days is not automatically fatal. The offence depends on the drawer failing to pay within fifteen days of a notice, so a late notice can still found a complaint in some circumstances, but a complaint based on a stale notice is exposed to challenge and should not be risked. Where the delay is explained — illness, absence, or a genuine difficulty in tracing the drawer — the position is best set out in the complaint with the supporting material, and the court's power to condone delay considered.
The fifteen-day period for the drawer to pay
The second period is fifteen days from the receipt of the notice by the drawer. The clock starts on receipt, not on the date the notice is written or posted. If the drawer pays the cheque amount within those fifteen days, no offence is committed and the matter ends; the payee cannot afterwards file on that notice.
If the drawer does not pay within the fifteen days, the cause of action arises on the day the period ends. That date is important for two reasons: it fixes the start of the one-month filing period, and it fixes the date on which the offence is treated as committed.
Filing the complaint within one month
Section 142 of the Negotiable Instruments Act requires the complaint to be made within one month of the date on which the cause of action arises — that is, one month from the day the fifteen-day period expires. A complaint filed after that month is not necessarily dead: the proviso to Section 142 allows the court to take cognizance of a complaint filed later if the complainant shows sufficient cause for the delay. Condonation is discretionary, not a matter of right, so a complaint should always be filed within the month where that is possible.
Once filed, the case is tried summarily under Section 143, and the complainant may give evidence by affidavit under Section 145, which keeps the process from being drawn out.
How the notice must be sent, and service
Send the demand notice to the drawer's correct address by registered post, speed post, or a recognised courier, and keep the receipt and the tracking record. Where a notice is properly addressed and put into the post, the law presumes that it was served on the drawer, so a cover that comes back marked unclaimed, refused, or "not known" is generally treated as served. The presumption does not help a payee who sends the notice to an old or wrong address, or who cannot show that it was ever posted.
The notice itself must demand the cheque amount and must state that the payee will proceed under Section 138 if it is not paid within fifteen days. A notice that asks for a different sum, or does not give the fifteen days, may not satisfy the statute.
What happens if the drawer pays or replies
If the drawer pays within the fifteen days, the criminal complaint cannot be filed on that notice. If the drawer replies denying the debt, that reply does not stop the payee from filing — it only joins issue, to be decided at trial. A reply is not a substitute for payment, and the fifteen-day period is not extended by correspondence.
Where the debt is denied, keep the trail: the invoice, the delivery proof, bank statements and any acknowledgement of the debt. A Section 138 case succeeds on proof that the cheque was issued to discharge a legally enforceable debt or liability.
If the cheque is still within its validity, a payee who is unsure about the dates may present it again and obtain a fresh return memo, which starts a fresh thirty-day period for a new notice. This is worth considering when the original notice or the complaint is at risk of a limitation objection. What a payee cannot do is use a second presentation to revive a notice whose fifteen-day period has already produced a cause of action; the two are alternatives, not a way to gain extra time on the same default.
Where the payee holds more than one bounced cheque from the same drawer, each cheque supports its own notice and its own complaint, and the periods are calculated cheque by cheque. Folding several cheques into a single notice can create confusion about which default is being spoken to, so keep the papers for each one separately.
After July 2024: does the new criminal procedure change the timeline?
The criminal procedure law changed on 1 July 2024, when the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (BNSS) replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (CrPC). The change is one of numbering and framing: what was the complaint to a magistrate under Section 200 CrPC is now under Section 223 BNSS, and the provisions on summons and summary trial have been renumbered. The three time periods in Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act are untouched, because they sit in the NI Act itself, not in the procedural code. A reader searching the old terms — Section 138, Section 142, Section 200 CrPC — will find the same substantive answer.
The three periods at a glance
| Stage | Time limit | Runs from |
|---|---|---|
| Demand notice to the drawer | Thirty days | The date the payee receives information of the dishonour |
| Time for the drawer to pay | Fifteen days | The date the drawer receives the notice |
| Complaint to the magistrate | One month | The date the fifteen-day period ends |
Mistakes that commonly sink a notice
- Sending the notice before the cheque is returned, or without the return memo in hand.
- Sending it to an old address after the drawer has moved, so the presumption of service cannot be relied on.
- Not giving the drawer the full fifteen days, or demanding more than the cheque amount.
- Filing the complaint more than a month after the cause of action without explaining the delay.
- Losing the postal receipt and the tracking record, which are what prove despatch and service.
If you have received a cheque-bounce notice rather than sent one, the questions are different: read our note on what happens when a cheque bounce notice is received. For the complaint and trial process from filing onward, see the cheque bounce case procedure, and for representation in the city courts, a cheque bounce lawyer in Dalhousie.