Trial of an offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act is also conducted under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.) subject to any special provision made in the N.I. Act itself.
Now, Section 219 of the Cr.P.C. provides that when a person is accused of more offences than one of the same kind committed within the space of twelve months from the first to the last of such offences, whether in respect of the same person or not, he may be charged with, and tried at one trial for, any number of them not exceeding three.
This means that a maximum of up to 3 offences can be tried together in one trial subject to above conditions.
In your case, you have mentioned that there are 7 cheque bounce cases occurring within a period of 10 days against the same person. Therefore, in my opinion, you can club together these cheque bounce cases in groups of 3 cases in one trial. So, I think you can file a total of 3 cases (covering 3 + 3 + 1 cheque bouncing cases, respectively) by clubbing together cases in the above manner.
Dr. Ashok Dhamija is a New Delhi based Supreme Court Advocate and author of law books. Read more about him by clicking here. List of his Forum Replies. List of his other articles. List of his Quora Answers. List of his YouTube Videos.
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