Where facts necessary to satisfy the ingredients so constitute an offence under section 420 IPC, were absent in the said complaint. It was held a fit case where the proceedings are to be quashed by invoking the inherent Power s of this court under section 482 Crpc.

In the case on hand, as per the specific case pleaded, the cheque in question has been issued towards the discharge of legal liability and the presumption under section 118 and 139 iof the Negotiable Instrument Act comes to the aid of the Complainant and this would not be stage for the court to embark upon the merits or otherwise of the contentions and the same will have to be thrashed out at the full dressed trial.

It was settled law that at this stage the Court was not justified in embarking upon an enquiry as to the liability or genuine or otherwise of the allegations made in the complaint. The inherent Power s do not confer any arbitrary jurisdiction on the Court to act according to its whim or caprice.

At this stage the Court could not have gone in to merits and/ or come to a conclusion that there was no existing debt or liability. It was necessary to allege specifically in the complaint that there was a subsisting liability and an enforceable debt and to discharge the same, the cheques were issued. The absence of such vital allegation, considerably impairs the maintainability.

There was therefore no requirement that the complainant must specifically allege in the complaint that there was a subsisting liability. The burden of proving that there was no existing debt or liability was on the respondents. This they have to discharge in the trial. At this stage, merely on the basis of averments in the petitions filed by them the High court could not have concluded that there was no existing debt or liability.

Under section 482 Crpc , inherent Power can be exercised only either for the purpose of preventing abuse of process of any Court or to secure the ends of justice or to give effect to an order passed under the Code of Criminal Procedure and not otherwise. Further, very recently in the case of Union of India vs Prakash P.Hinduja, the Supreme Court has noted the circumstances under which the power can be invoked under Section 482 of Crpc.

In view of the above and when kept in mind the facts of the case , at this stage, the proceedings initiated against the petitioners can not be quashed as no such case was made out for that and consequently, the petition deserves to be dismissed.

At the time of issuing the process the Magistrate has before him the complainant and the statement of the complainant recoded on oath and therefore since in the Complaint and in the verification statement, the complainant has specifically given the essential ingredient s of section 141 of the Negotiable Instrument Act, and has made a statement on oath in that regard,the complainant succeeds in making out a prima facie case for issuance of process.