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The finance ministry is mulling several steps like dipping into other accounts of a cheque issuer and prohibition of opening of new accounts of offenders to effectively deal with cheque bounce cases which are clogging the legal system. Many suggestions were made at a high-level meeting recently called by the ministry to deal with the high incidence of cheque bounce cases. Some of the steps suggested before taking legal recourse included debiting another accounts of the cheque issuer if his or her account is short of funds to honour the instrument, sources said. The other suggestions were treating cheque bounce as default of loan and thus reporting it to credit information companies for necessary downgrade of score, the sources said, adding a proper legal view would be taken before these suggestions are accepted. If these suggestions are implemented, it would help enforce cheque honouring by the payer without the matter going to court and also compel him/her to make payment by creat
A State Bank of India branch has been fined Rs 85,177 by the Dharwad District Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum for dishonouring a cheque after failing to properly recognise a Kannada numeral on it. Vadirajacharya Inamdar issued an SBI cheque for Rs 6,000 to Hubli Electricity Supply Company Limited (HESCOM) towards his electricity bill on September 3, 2020. HESCOM had its account in Canara Bank and therefore the cheque was sent to the SBI branch at Haliyal in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka for clearance. The cheque was filled in Kannada including the numerals. The SBI branch in Haliyal wrongly identified the Kannada numeral nine as six and, therefore, dishonoured the cheque. The numeral nine indicated the month of September, but the bank read it as June. Inamdar, an English lecturer in the Government PU College in Hubballi, approached the Consumer Forum with his complaint. On Wednesday, the Forum consisting of President Ishappa Bhute and members V A Bolishetti and P C Hir