Banks won’t be allowed to file cheque dishonour case: HC

The High Court on Wednesday ordered that banks and financial institutions will not be allowed to file any case against any person over cheque dishonor.

The HC bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal passed the order after turning down the cheque dishonor case of Brac Bank against a small businessman for loan recovery.

At the same time, the court ordered stopping the proceedings of all check dishonor cases pending in the trial court.

However, a case can be filed in the Money Loan Court only under the Money Loan Act of 2003 for loan recovery, the HC said.

HC also instructed the lower courts to dismiss the cheque dishonour cases filed by any banks or financial institutions and send those to the Money Loan court.

On June 20 in 2016, Mohammad Ali, a small businessman of Brahmanbaria, was sentenced to six-month imprisonment and fined Tk 2.95 lakh in a cheque dishonour case.

On July 27 in 2015, Brac Bank filed the cheque dishonour case against Mohammad Ali .

Ali appealed to the HC against the judgment.

The HC relieved him of the imprisonment and ordered him to pay back 50 percent of the loan within the next 10 days, said his counsel Advocate Abdullah Al Baki.

Meanwhile, Brac Bank’s counsel Saifuzzaman Tuhin said they will appeal against the HC order.