The Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill 2015 was passed by a voice vote in the parliament. Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha insisted that it would boost the "integrity of the financial system" and not lead to the harassment of the common man. NDA government has faced tough questions in the Lok Sabha from its own members over a bill, which aims at making the filing of cases to be more convenient for payees in the cheque-bounce matters, some BJP members stated that it would be used by the corporates to harass the common man.

The bill was necessitated due to an "impractical" Supreme Court ordering that the cases against those having defaulted on their cheque payments can only be filed in the courts under which jurisdiction of the bank account of the accused falls, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said.

"To address the difficulties faced by the payee or the lender of the money in filing the case under Section 138, because of which large number of cases are stuck, the jurisdiction for an offense has been clearly defined keeping in view the interest of complainants," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said a week ago while introducing the bill.

S S Ahluwalia, P P Choudhary and R K Singh have expressed apprehension, that the new legislation could be used by corporates to file cases against their clients in far-off places. The act can be utilized by the lenders for harassing the defaulter by filling the case in the other corner of the country. This will make the life of the defaulter vulnerable due to his responsibility to appear before the court for every adjournment and the courts of India is well known for adjourning the cases. Also, if the defaulter has to get bail, he has to bring the sureties to the city where the case is going on. This will increase the financial burden on him.

Most of the cheque-bounce cases are filled for a very higher amount than what the defaulter has borrowed. The defaulter has to give a blank cheque while availing the loan. This cheque is filled with an exorbitant amount and the case is filed. In a nutshell, the amendment does not help the disputants to settle amicably, instead the prisons will be filled with more defaulters. This will end-up in the collapse of the judicial system of the country.

By Premji