Cheque Bounce Legal Notice: The 30-Day Deadline and What to Write

When does the 30-day clock for a cheque bounce notice start?

The 30 days run from the date you receive information from your bank that the cheque has been returned unpaid. That is the wording of section 138(b). It is not the date written on the cheque, not the date you deposited it, and not the date printed on the return memo if the memo reached you later. In practice the information arrives as an SMS, an email from the bank, a debit entry for return charges in your passbook, or the physical cheque and memo handed back at the branch.

The difficulty is proof. If the bank's memo is dated 4 March but you collected it on 11 March, your 30 days start on 11 March, but you must be able to show that. Keep the SMS, the email with its header, or ask the branch for a letter stating when the cheque and memo were handed over. If you cannot prove a later date, assume the clock started on the date of the memo and work from there.

Count the days the way courts count them. Under section 9 of the General Clauses Act 1897 the first day is left out and the last day is included. So if you received the information on 10 May, day 1 is 11 May and day 30 is 9 June. A notice posted on 9 June is in time; a notice posted on 10 June is not. What matters is the date you send the notice, not the date it reaches the drawer.

Do not cut it fine. A notice drafted on day 29, typed in a hurry and posted at the last counter of the day is the notice most likely to carry an error. Aim to dispatch it within the first two weeks.

The section 138 timetable at a glance

Each step has its own deadline, and each one is counted from a different event. This is the table we use when reading a client's papers.

Note the asymmetry. The law lets the court excuse a late complaint if you show sufficient cause, but it has no such provision for a late notice. A notice sent on day 31 cannot be rescued by an application.

What if I have already missed the 30 days?

If the cheque is still within its validity period, you can present it again. A fresh dishonour gives you fresh information from the bank and a fresh 30 days to send a notice. The Supreme Court in MSR Leathers v S. Palaniappan (2013) held that a payee may prosecute on a later dishonour even if an earlier notice was sent and not followed by a complaint. Validity is normally three months from the date on the cheque, so check the date before you rush back to the bank.

If the validity has also run out, the criminal remedy on that cheque is closed. The debt itself is not lost. You can still send a civil demand notice and file a recovery suit, often a summary suit under Order 37 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which is built for claims based on written instruments such as cheques. Our post on choosing between a criminal case and a summary suit explains when each one makes sense, and the general three-year limitation for money claims still applies.

What must a section 138 notice contain?

The statute asks for very little, and courts hold you to that little strictly. The notice must be in writing, it must tell the drawer that the cheque has been dishonoured, and it must demand payment of "the said amount of money", which means the amount of the cheque. Everything else in a well-drafted notice is there to make the case easier to prove later.

The amount is where notices fail. In Kaveri Plastics v Mahdoom Bawa Bahrudeen Noorul (2025) the Supreme Court held that a notice demanding a sum different from the cheque amount is invalid, and that even a typing error in the amount is fatal because the proviso is strictly construed. If the cheque is for ₹4,75,000, the notice must demand ₹4,75,000, in figures and in words, and the two must match.

Identify the cheque so that there is no doubt which instrument you mean: cheque number, date, amount, drawee bank and branch, the account it was drawn on, the bank where you deposited it, the date of the return memo and the reason given ("funds insufficient", "exceeds arrangement", "payment stopped by drawer", "account closed"). Then explain in two or three plain sentences why the cheque was given: a loan on a particular date, goods supplied under particular invoices, a settlement of a particular dispute. You will repeat this story in the complaint and in your affidavit, and it must not change.

Close with the demand: pay the cheque amount within fifteen days of receiving this notice, failing which proceedings under section 138 read with section 142 will be taken. Write "fifteen days". A notice that asks for payment within seven days invites an argument you do not need to have.

Checklist: the contents of a cheque bounce legal notice

Before the notice goes out, tick each of these against the original cheque and return memo, not against a photocopy or your memory.

• Name and full address of the payee (you), and of the advocate if it is sent through one.
• Name of the drawer exactly as on the account, with every address you know: residence, office, registered office of a company.
• Cheque number, date, amount in figures and words, drawee bank and branch.
• Date of deposit, the bank where it was deposited, date of the return memo and the exact reason for return.
• Date on which you received the information of dishonour.
• A short, accurate account of the debt or liability for which the cheque was given.
• A clear demand for payment of the cheque amount within fifteen days of receipt of the notice.
• Any separate claim for interest or notice costs written as a separate paragraph, never merged into the cheque amount.
• Statement that proceedings under section 138 read with section 142 will follow if payment is not made.
• Date, signature, and a copy kept for the court file.

Can I claim interest, costs and the rest of the loan in the same notice?

You can, but only if the cheque amount stands on its own. Courts have accepted notices that also ask for interest or the cost of the notice, so long as the demand for the cheque amount is clear and separate and the drawer can tell exactly what he must pay to avoid prosecution. A notice that asks for one lump sum, say ₹5,20,000 "including interest", on a cheque of ₹4,75,000, is the kind of notice the Kaveri Plastics ruling warns against.

If the drawer owes you more than the cheque, for example a loan of ₹10 lakh of which only one cheque of ₹4 lakh came back, keep the two claims apart. The section 138 notice deals with the ₹4 lakh cheque. The balance belongs in a civil demand, either a separate notice or a separate paragraph that makes clear it is not part of the section 138 demand. Our post on sending a legal notice before a civil suit covers that kind of demand.

One more trap. If the drawer had already repaid part of the debt before you presented the cheque, the full cheque amount may no longer be a debt that is legally due. That issue comes up most with cheques taken as security, and is dealt with in our post on whether a bounced security cheque is still a section 138 offence. Sort it out before you send the notice, not after the accused raises it in cross-examination.

Who should send the notice, and to whom?

The notice is sent by the payee or the holder in due course of the cheque. It may go in your own name or through an advocate; the law does not require an advocate, though a notice on an advocate's letterhead tends to be read more carefully by the drawer and is easier to prove because the advocate's office keeps the dispatch record. If the payee is a company or a firm, the notice should be sent by someone authorised to act for it, and that authority should be on paper before the complaint is filed.

It goes to the drawer, meaning the person who signed the cheque on his own account. For a joint account, the person liable is the one who signed, not every account holder. For a company cheque, send the notice to the company at its registered office and also to the directors or officers you intend to name as accused, at their own addresses. Whether a particular director can be prosecuted is a separate question, explained in our post on when directors are liable for a company's bounced cheque, but sending them the notice costs nothing and removes an argument.

Use every address you have. A drawer who has moved, or who gives a business address and lives elsewhere, will later say he never received the notice. Two or three envelopes sent the same day close that door.

How should the notice be sent: speed post, courier, email or WhatsApp?

Section 138 only says the notice must be "in writing". It does not prescribe a mode, but the mode decides how easily you can prove service. Speed post or registered post with acknowledgment due remains the safest, because the postal receipt, the tracking report and the returned AD card are documents magistrates accept routinely.

If a notice is sent by post to the correct address and comes back marked "refused", "unclaimed" or "addressee not available", courts treat it as served. The Supreme Court settled this in C.C. Alavi Haji v Palapetty Muhammed (2007), and added a fair safeguard for the drawer: a drawer who says he never got the notice can pay the cheque amount within 15 days of receiving the court's summons, and the complaint will then be rejected. So a refused envelope is not a problem for you. A wrong address is.

Email and WhatsApp are useful as a second channel. Several High Courts have accepted notices sent electronically, on the footing that an electronic record satisfies the requirement of writing under the IT Act. Use them in addition to post, not instead of it, and keep the proof: the sent email with headers, the WhatsApp screen showing the blue ticks, and a certificate for electronic records under section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam when the case reaches court. Private couriers are the weakest option, since their delivery reports are often unsigned and the courier company rarely sends a witness.

How to send a cheque bounce legal notice, step by step

This is the order in which the work is done in practice, from the day the bank's SMS arrives.

1. Collect the cheque and the memo

   Get the original dishonoured cheque and the return memo from your bank. Ask for a letter or an email showing when they were handed to you, and save the SMS that told you of the return. These fix the start of the 30 days.

2. Work out the dates

   Write down day 30 for the notice. Check the cheque's validity date in case re-presentation becomes necessary. Note the reason for return, because it affects the wording and the defence you can expect.

3. Put the background on paper

   Note when and how the money was paid or the goods supplied: bank transfer details, invoices, ledger, messages, any written agreement. Keep the story short and true. The notice, the complaint and your affidavit must all tell it the same way.

4. Draft and check the amount

   Draft the notice and then check the amount in figures and words against the original cheque, character by character. Check the cheque number and date as well. Have a second person read it.

5. Send it to every address

   Dispatch by speed post or registered post AD to each known address on the same day. Send the same notice by email and WhatsApp if you have them. Keep the postal receipts in a separate envelope.

6. Track delivery

   Download the tracking report for each article once it shows delivered, refused or returned. The date of delivery starts the drawer's 15 days, so record it.

7. Wait out the 15 days

   Do not file anything before the 15 days have fully run. Diarise day 16, the date the offence is complete, and the last date for the complaint, one month after that.

What happens during the 15 days after the notice?

The drawer has 15 days from receiving the notice to pay the cheque amount. If he pays in full, the matter ends there; there is no offence. Payment can be by demand draft, bank transfer or cash against a receipt, and you should acknowledge it in writing and return the cheque.

If he pays part, the offence is still complete on day 16, because the section speaks of failure to pay "the said amount". The part payment is given credit later, in the compensation the court awards or in a settlement. Many drawers use these 15 days to ask for time or offer instalments. You can agree, but put any arrangement in writing and say clearly if you are giving up the prosecution or only holding it back. An open-ended promise to "wait a few months" can run you past the one-month window for the complaint.

If he does nothing, the cause of action arises on day 16 and the one-month period to file the complaint starts. A complaint filed before the 15 days are over is premature, and courts have refused to entertain such complaints. A short delay beyond the month can be condoned if you show sufficient cause, but do not plan on it.

Received a cheque bounce notice? How the drawer should reply

A reply is not compulsory, and the law draws no adverse conclusion from silence alone. But a reply sent within the 15 days is often the first place a defence is recorded, and a defence raised early carries more weight than one that surfaces for the first time two years later at trial. If the cheque was given as security for a loan already repaid, if it was handed over blank and filled in for more than was due, or if the goods were never supplied, say so plainly and with dates.

Keep the reply factual and consistent with what you can prove. Do not deny your signature if it is yours; a bank's specimen record will settle that point against you. Do not invent a theft of the cheque book unless you reported it at the time. A reply that later turns out to be untrue does more damage than no reply at all.

If you do owe the money, the 15 days are the cheapest time to deal with it. Paying, or agreeing a written settlement, ends the matter without a criminal case. Once a complaint is filed you will have to attend court, may be asked to deposit up to 20% of the cheque amount as interim compensation, and settlement then comes with court costs at later stages. When Advocate B.K. Singh is shown a notice by a drawer, the first thing he checks is whether the notice itself is valid: the date of dispatch against the date of the return memo, and the amount demanded against the cheque. A defective notice changes the whole conversation.

Mistakes that make a cheque bounce notice useless

These are the errors we see most often in notices people have drafted themselves or had drafted in a hurry.

• Counting from the cheque date. People assume they have 30 days from the date on the cheque or from deposit. The clock runs from receipt of the bank's information, and a notice sent too early (before dishonour) is as useless as one sent too late.
• A different amount. Adding interest into the main demand, rounding off, or a typing error in the figure. The amount demanded must be the cheque amount.
• Demanding the loan, not the cheque. A notice that only says "repay the loan of ₹10 lakh" without identifying the dishonoured cheque and demanding its amount is a civil notice, not a section 138 notice.
• One address only. Sending the notice to an old address, or only to a company's branch office, gives the drawer an easy defence of non-service.
• No proof of dispatch. Losing the postal receipt, or relying on a courier with no signed delivery report.
• Re-presenting after the notice. Sending a notice and then depositing the cheque again "to give him a chance" without starting a fresh cycle. If you re-present, treat the later dishonour as a new start and send a new notice.
• Filing too early. Filing the complaint before the drawer's 15 days have run out because the notice date was mistaken for the delivery date.

Documents to gather before the notice is drafted

Bring these to your advocate, or keep them together if you are drafting the notice yourself. The same set later goes into the complaint.

Do I need a lawyer to send a cheque bounce notice?

No law requires it. You can draft and sign the notice yourself, and some people do so successfully. The risk is not in the format but in the details: the amount, the date, the addresses and the story of the debt, all of which will be tested later in cross-examination. A notice is a page or two long, yet a single wrong figure can cost you the criminal remedy altogether.

There is also a strategic side. A drawer who receives an advocate's notice that sets out the cheque, the debt and the consequences accurately often pays or calls to settle within the 15 days. If he does not, the notice has already been written to fit the complaint that follows. We discuss fees at the first meeting and agree them in writing; postal and court costs are separate.

After the notice: what the complaint will need from it

When you file the complaint, the notice has to be proved, and the papers you kept now matter. The complaint annexes a copy of the notice, the postal receipts, the tracking reports or AD cards, and any returned envelope, unopened, with its postal endorsement. Your affidavit of evidence will state the date of dispatch and the date of delivery, and the accused's advocate will ask you about both.

The complaint is filed in the court that has jurisdiction over the branch of your bank where you deposited the cheque, which since the 2015 amendment is usually close to home. Our post on where to file a cheque bounce complaint explains this, and the reasons for return that do and do not attract section 138 are covered in our post on stop payment, account closed and signature mismatch returns.

What to do this week if your cheque has bounced

Today, find out the exact date your bank informed you of the dishonour, and write down day 30. Collect the original cheque and memo, and put together the proof of the debt. If the reason for return is "refer to drawer" or "signature differs", note it, because the drawer's likely defence starts there.

Within the next few days, have the notice drafted, checked against the cheque and sent by speed post to every address, with an electronic copy. Then diarise the drawer's 15 days and the one-month window for the complaint. If you want an advocate to read the return memo and the debt papers before the notice goes out, the team of Advocate B.K. Singh at B.K. Singh & Associates can look at them and tell you the dates; you can reach us through the enquiry page. For how the wider criminal process works in Delhi, see our page on criminal courts and police stations in Delhi.