2025:UHC:2690 SL. No. Date Office Notes, reports, orders or proceedings or directions and Registrar’s order with Signatures COURT’S OR JUDGE’S ORDERS C482 No.764 of 2017 Hon’ble Alok Mahra, J. Mr. Arvind Vashistha, Senior Advocate, assisted by Mr. Rachit Manglik and Mr. Abhishek Anthwal, Advocate, holding brief of Mr. Vivek Pathak, Advocate for the applicant. Mr. Rakesh Kumar Joshi, Brief Holder for the State of Uttarakhand. Mr. Jitendra Chaudhary, Advocate for respondent no.2. 2. Present criminal misc. application has been filed by the applicant for quashing the summoning order dated 09.11.2016 as well as entire proceedings of Complaint Case No.5680 of 2016 pending in the Court of learned Second Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division)/ Judicial Magistrate Rudrapur, District Udham Singh Nagar. 3. Learned Senior Counsel for the applicant submits that the applicant was only one of the Directors of the Company and had signed the cheque on behalf of company, therefore, at the most, she could be fastened with vicarious liability for any offence; that since summon was not issued to the company and notice was issued to one of the Directors of the Company (applicant herein), therefore, the summoning order is bad in the eyes of law. In order to buttress his argument, learned Senior Advocate for the petitioner placed reliance upon the judgment rendered by Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of “Bijoy Kumar Moni Vs. Paresh Manna & another, reported in 2025:UHC:2690 2024 SCC OnLine SC 3833, wherein the Court has held that vicarious liability can only be affixed against the directors, authorised signatories etc. of the company after the company is held liable for the commission of offence under Section 138. Paragraph no.50 of the said judgment is extracted below: “50. A catena of decisions of this Court have settled the position of law that in case of a cheque issued on behalf of a company by its authorised signatory, prosecution cannot proceed against the such authorised signatory or other post-holders of the company as described under Section 141 of the NI Act, unless the company who is the drawer of the cheque is arraigned as an accused in the complaint case filed before the magistrate. Further, vicarious liability can only be affixed against the directors, authorised signatories, etc. of the company after the company is held liable for the commission of offence under Section 138.” 4. Per contra, learned counsel appearing for respondent no.2 submits that, though in the complaint, respondent no.2 have arrayed the company as accused no.1; but, reason best known to the concerned Magistrate, he has chosen not to summon the company and, as such, there is no defect is in his complaint. 5. After perusing the judgment passed by Hon’ble Apex Court, it is apparently clear that, without taking cognizance against the company, the applicant cannot not be summoned. 6. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case and also considering the fact that since summon was not issued against the company i.e. principal and was issued only against the applicant, who was only one of the Directors of the company, this Court has 2025:UHC:2690 no hesitation in quashing the summoning order dated 09.11.2016 passed by learned Second Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division)/Judicial Magistrate Rudrapur, District Udham Singh Nagar. 7. Accordingly, the summoning order dated 09.11.2016 passed by learned Second Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division)/Judicial Magistrate Rudrapur, District Udham Singh Magistrate in Complaint Case No.5680 of 2016, is hereby quashed. The matter is remitted back to learned Second Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division)/Judicial Magistrate Rudrapur, District Udham Singh Magistrate for decision afresh, as per law. However, parties shall be at liberty to raise all legal issues, which are available to them. 8. The criminal misc. application stands disposed of. (Alok Mahra, J.) 09.04.2025 Arpan ARPAN JAISWAL Digitally signed by ARPAN JAISWAL DN: c=IN, o=HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND, ou=HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND, 2.5.4.20=eabb68a3895e41937c266c23964c0485365 445e3a20dddb7393398f9fe45ba3e, postalCode=263001, st=UTTARAKHAND, serialNumber=060FC17022BEAE3DE215D68D9D454 C5109CB987446351E4DF04AADAA2C2CEA66, cn=ARPAN JAISWAL Date: 2025.04.09 17:12:34 +05'30'