A bounced cheque moves on a strict clock. If you’re owed the money, you have 30 days to send a notice, then 30 more days to file once the drawer’s 15-day window closes. Miss any of those, and your case can get thrown out. If you’ve been sent a notice, the law presumes you owe the money the moment you admit your signature. That presumption isn’t the end of the story, though. The right evidence can still defeat it. As your cheque bounce advocate in Ahmedabad, Raval Law Associates moves fast on the clock and builds the defense correctly when one is needed. Call us at +91 99099 57585 and tell us which side of this you’re on.
A cheque bounce case is won or lost on timing and evidence. We handle both sides of it.
Email us at legal@ravallawassociates.com with the cheque, the notice, or whatever documents you have, and we’ll tell you exactly where things stand.
30 days to send the demand notice, counted from the bank’s return memo. Then the drawer gets 15 days to pay. If they don’t, you have 30 more days from that deadline to file the criminal complaint. Miss any of these windows, and the case can get dismissed on a technicality, regardless of how clear your claim is. We track every deadline from the day you bring us the cheque.
No, but the law starts by presuming you owe the money. Once you admit your signature on the cheque, courts presume it was issued for a real debt. You carry the burden to prove otherwise. That’s unusual for a criminal case, but it’s how Section 139 works. The presumption is rebuttable. Courts have acquitted people who proved the lender took the cheque as security, who showed they’d already paid the debt, or whose evidence undercut the complainant’s story. What matters is whether your defense rests on real evidence, not just a denial.
Yes, and courts actively encourage it. The law treats Section 138 as more about compensation than punishment. Settlement, sometimes called compounding, can happen at almost any stage, even on appeal. Many drawers settle within the first 15 days, once they realize a criminal complaint is the next step. We negotiate this where it serves you, but we build the case properly either way, in case settlement doesn’t happen.
Advocate Parth Raval and Advocate Akanksha Raval each bring 9 years of experience handling cheque bounce matters in Ahmedabad’s courts. That experience covers what actually matters here:
You’ll work directly with one of the founding advocates on your case, not a junior associate treating Section 138 as routine paperwork.
