A person wishes to file a case for cheque-bouncing and even a civil suit, he would like to know the charges for the same.

Response

As per your query, to file a case under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instrumenst Act, the Court fee is Rs. 50. However, to file a suit for cheque bouncing, you must deposit 20% of the said amount before the Court. This is so that people do not file cases just to harass the other party. Thus in your case, if the said amount is Rs. 23 Lacs, then 20% of that amount i.e. Rs. 4,60,000 /- must be depostied with the Court. This amount will be released after the judgement of the Court. For further details related to Court fees, you can refer Karnataka Court fee and suit valuation Act.

For filing a civil case it would be Rupees 1,09,625 plus 4 per centum of the amount exceeding rupees 20,00,000. The details for the same can be found on the website of https://districts.ecourts.gov.in/node/186666.

However, it is advisable to try and recover the money out of court first as filing a suit for cheque bouncing or recovery will result in a lot of time being wasted and your money i.e. court fees you would not recover and even the 20% deposit to be paid for Cheque bouncing will be stuck in the Court till the final judgement arrives which can take a lot of time, even years.

Reference: Section 138, Negotiable Instrument Act
Where any cheque drawn by a person on an account maintained by him with a banker for payment of any amount of money to another person from out of that account for the discharge, in whole or in part, of any debt or other liability, is returned by the bank unpaid, either because of the amount of money standing to the credit of that account is insufficient to honour the cheque or that it exceeds the amount arranged to be paid from that account by an agreement made with that bank, such person shall be deemed to have committed an offence and shall, without prejudice to any other provisions of this Act, be punished with imprisonment for [a term which may be extended to two years], or with fine which may extend to twice the amount of the cheque, or with both: Provided that nothing contained in this section shall apply unlessÑ
(a) the cheque has been presented to the bank within a period of six months from the date on which it is drawn or within the period of its validity, whichever is earlier;
(b) the payee or the holder in due course of the cheque, as the case may be, makes a demand for the payment of the said amount of money by giving a notice in writing, to the drawer of the cheque, [within thirty days] of the receipt of information by him from the bank regarding the return of the cheque as unpaid; and
(c) the drawer of such cheque fails to make the payment of the said amount of money to the payee or, as the case may be, to the holder in due course of the cheque, within fifteen days of the receipt of the said notice.

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