Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:37765 Court No. - 76 Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 1836 of 2024 Appellant :- Dhyanveer Respondent :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Appellant :- Awadh Sharma,Shivniket Tripathi Counsel for Respondent :- Dhiraj Kumar Pandey,G.A. Hon'ble Vinod Diwakar,J. 1. Heard learned counsel for the applicant and learned A.G.A. for the State. 2. The present appeal has been preferred assailing the judgment and order dated 30.09.2024, passed by the learned Presiding Officer, Additional Court, Saharanpur, in Complaint Case No. 976 of 2018, titled Sachin Pawar v. Dhyanveer, under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, Police Station Sadar Bazar, District Saharanpur. 3. By the impugned judgment, the appellant has been convicted and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for a period of three months, and further directed to pay a fine of Rs.10,00,000/-. Out of which Rs.9,90,000/- be paid as compensation to the complainant. 4. During the course of arguments, the learned A.G.A. submitted that in view of the sentence being less than seven years, the present appeal is not maintainable before this Court under Section 374(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and that the applicant has a statutory remedy to file a criminal appeal before the competent Sessions Court. 5. In view of the above submission and the legal position under Section 374(3) Cr.P.C., this Court finds no reason to entertain the present appeal. 6. Accordingly, the appeal is disposed of with liberty to the appellant to avail the remedy of filing a criminal appeal before the appropriate Sessions Court, challenging the aforesaid judgment and order dated 30.09.2024, in accordance with law. 7. It is further directed that if such an appeal is instituted within a period of six weeks from today, the Sessions Court shall consider the same on its own merits, strictly in accordance with law. However, it is provided that no coercive measures shall be taken against the appellant for a period of six weeks or until the filing of an appeal before the competent forum, whichever is earlier. Order Date :- 17.3.2025 Ujjawal Justice Vinod Diwakar Digitally signed by :- UJJAWAL High Court of Judicature at Allahabad