Delhi court convicts man after cheque given to his lawyer as fee bounces

A Delhi Court recently convicted a man after the cheque he had given to his lawyer towards payment of legal fee bounced [Rahul Trivedi vs. Manoj Singh]..The Court sentenced the man, one Manoj Singh, to three months in jail apart from asking him to pay a fine of ₹10.9 lakhs for failing to pay his lawyer for legal services rendered.The complainant, advocate Rahul Trivedi, told the Court that Singh had not only failed to pay his legal fee but had also failed to reimburse ₹7.7 lakh which the lawyer himself had paid to a Senior Advocate engaged to argue Singh's case before the Supreme Court.In an August 7 judgment, Judicial Magistrate Anurag Chhabra of the Patiala House Courts in Delhi found that Singh had not been able to raise even a probable defence that he had no legally enforceable debt to pay the lawyer. In the ensuing August 21 sentencing order, the Court said that Singh did not regularly attend the case, as a result of which non-bailable warrants had been issued against him.Further, Singh thwarted attempts to settle the matter by taking multiple adjournments under the pretext that he would comply with the terms of the settlement, only to not adhere to such terms. The Court noted that this only delayed the adjudication of the case."In view of the overall facts and circumstances of the present matter, convict (client) is sentenced to simple imprisonment for a period of three months and is further directed to pay a fine of Rs.10,90,000/- to the complainant within 60 days from the pronouncement of this order and in default of payment of this fine, convict shall undergo simple imprisonment for a period of three months," the Court ordered. .By way of background, Trivedi, a practicing advocate, was approached by Singh to defend his case before the Supreme Court. At the behest of Singh, Trivedi also engaged Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Soli Sorabjee to appear before the Supreme Court. The office of one of the senior lawyers engaged informed that, as a rule of caution, the office would only take a cheque from the advocate on behalf of the client since the client is from outside Delhi. Trivedi, therefore, paid a fee of ₹7.7 lakh for the client out of his (the lawyer's) own pocket.Singh gave a cheque to Trivedi to reimburse this payment. However, this cheque was dishonoured due to “insufficiency of funds”. Later, a cheque earlier issued to Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi also bounced.Meanwhile, Singh secured relief from the Supreme Court. Trivedi eventually sent a legal notice to Singh for the payment of legal fees in 2020. Since Singh did not pay the amount or respond to the legal notice, Trivedi filed a criminal complaint for the offence of cheque bouncing under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. Trivedi's counsel told the Court that Singh had been evading payment since the very beginning, which showed his intention to defraud.The Court noted that there were contradictions in the defence raised by the accused. At the stage of summons, Singh is said to have mentioned that he had paid ₹3 lakh through cheque to Trivedi and thereafter issued two more cheques (including a cheque for ₹7.7 lakh). He added that the litigation fees were not finalised and that he had also paid ₹1.65 lakh to Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra at the instance of Trivedi. However, at the stage of examination of evidence, Singh admitted that he owed money to the lawyer (Trivedi) and was ready to pay the same. The Court, however, eventually did not rely on his statements after noting that he failed to appear for cross-examination. "The complainant has been able to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt qua the accused in respect of the cheque in question (concerning the payment of ₹7.7 lakhs)," the Court concluded. .Advocates Amit Kumar Vidya, RK Wadhwa and Rajiv Khosla appeared for Trivedi. Advocates Sanjeev Prakash Upadhyay and Sanjay Kumar Mishra represented Singh..[Read conviction judgment].[Read sentencing order]