The Supreme Court Wednesday constituted a committee under the chairmanship of a former Bombay High Court judge to consider the suggestions and submit a report in three months specifying the steps to be taken for early disposal of cheque bounce cases across the country. A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the Centre has "in-principle accepted" the need for creating additional courts to deal with such cases, after the modalities are worked out on the issue.
The top court had last week termed the pendency of over 35 lakhs cheque bounce cases as "grotesque" and suggested to the Centre to come up with a law to create additional courts for a particular period of time to deal with such cases. It had said that Centre has the power under Article 247 of the Constitution coupled with the duty to establish additional courts to deal with cheque dishonour cases under provisions of the Negotiable Instruments (NI) Act.
Article 247 of the Constitution gives power to Parliament to establish certain additional courts for the better administration of laws made by it or of any existing laws with respect to a matter enumerated in the Union List. The top court was hearing a suo motu case to work out a mechanism for expeditious and just adjudication of cases relating to dishonour of cheques, fulfilling the mandate of law and reduce high pendency.
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