Query :
I am businessman at Mohammdapur, Dhaka. I am a whole seller of cosmetics and doing my business for 10 years. I have a number of distributors who buy cosmetics from me and distribute the product in whole Bangladesh. They usually give part payment as advance and for the rest amount they provide cheque. Later within 3 to 6 months I cash their cheque through my bank account. In this way I am doing business for a long time. But recently one of my distributors, namely Julhas Miah is doing procrastination with me regarding the payment of my rest of the money. I have tried to contact with him several times, but he is not showing any interest to my word. Now I want to take legal action against him. He gave me a cheque amounting Tk. 5,21,000/-. How could I recover my money through legal action, please inform me the details.
Regards,

Asif Mahmood
Mohammadpur, Dhaka.

Legal Opinion :
Thank you for your query. Actually this is a very common scenario in Bangladesh. There are many businessmen in existence who are facing such difficulties in doing their business. In long term business relation it is very likely to transact through cheque and this is the duty of the drawer to pay the money in time. But in case of non-payment of the cheque the drawee can take legal action to recover his money through section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act, 1881.
When a cheque is returned unpaid one should not wait to get the payment according to the convenience of the party issued the cheque. If necessary formalities are not completed within the time limit, the chances of recovering the amount will cease. So when the cheque is returned unpaid from the bank, the bearer should collect the returned cheque and return memo from the bank immediately.
Then through your lawyer, a notice should be served to the drawer within 30 days of return of the cheque informing the drawer about dishonor of the cheque and must have to demand of cheque amount. The drawee will get 30 days to repay his cheque amount to the drawee.
After the completion of 30 days, the drawer can file a criminal complaint under section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 in the court where the cause of action has taken place. Actually, by entertaining this provision a drawer becomes well protected to recover his money.

Md. Masrat Ali Tuhin
Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
He is the Head of the chamber of a renowned law firm, namely, ‘Masrat & Associates’, which has expertise mainly in criminal law and in conducting litigations before courts of different hierarchies. He can be reached at – cell: 01717834443,
E-mail: [email protected].