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Cheque Dishonour Legal Notice

At a glance

Price
₹99 · GST included
Stamp duty
Punjab and Chandigarh: no stamp duty is payable on this notice.
Registration
Punjab and Chandigarh: the notice is not registrable, because no clause of section 17(1) of the Registration Act, 1908 reaches a demand for money that affects no immovable property.
Witnesses
Punjab and Chandigarh: no witness signs.

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Also called

  • section 138 notice
  • cheque bounce notice
  • demand notice for a returned cheque

Whether you can fill this in here

You can fill this in here

You can fill this one in on this site, and read the whole draft on screen before you decide anything about it. It is a carefully drafted template; it is not advice about your own facts.

Fill this one in
Why you need it

When you need it

A cheque given to you has come back from the bank unpaid, and you want the money or, failing that, the right to prosecute. Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 turns the return into an offence only if you send the drawer a written demand for the cheque amount within 30 days of receiving the bank's information that the cheque was returned, and the drawer then fails to pay within 15 days of receiving that demand. This notice is the demand. It records the debt the cheque was given for, the cheque itself, when and through which account it was presented, the return memo and its reason, and the day the memo reached you, so that every date a court will check later is fixed from the start. A return marked funds insufficient, exceeds arrangement, account closed, payment stopped, refer to drawer, signatures do not match or image not found is a dishonour the section reaches. Where the drawer is a company, the notice also goes to the managing director and the officers who ran its affairs. Interest and costs, if you want them, are claimed separately, so that the statutory demand stays the cheque amount alone. Use it for a cheque presented within three months of its date and a memo received less than 30 days ago.

See stamp duty, registration and witnesses

What follows is written for Punjab and Chandigarh. It states the position there rather than describing how it varies, so the amounts below are the ones that apply — worth confirming at the sub-registrar’s office, because rates change. If the property is anywhere else in India, none of this is yours.

Stamp duty

Punjab and Chandigarh: no stamp duty is payable on this notice. It demands payment of a cheque already given and creates, transfers or extinguishes no right, so it is not an instrument within section 2(14) of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899; the payee signs it alone, and it is evidence of the demand, not a new obligation.

Registration

Punjab and Chandigarh: the notice is not registrable, because no clause of section 17(1) of the Registration Act, 1908 reaches a demand for money that affects no immovable property. What matters is proof that it went out within 30 days of the bank's information and of the day it was delivered: keep the postal or courier receipt, the tracking report and the acknowledgement card with the office copy.

Notarisation

Punjab and Chandigarh: a notary's seal adds nothing to this notice. It does its work by being sent in writing within 30 days of the bank's information and by reaching the drawer, and attestation of the sender's signature is no part of that.

Witnesses

Punjab and Chandigarh: no witness signs. The payee, or the advocate acting on the payee's instructions, signs alone, and the dispatch receipt, the tracking report and the acknowledgement card prove that the notice was sent and received.

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Sample preview — placeholder answers, not your data

CHEQUE DISHONOUR LEGAL NOTICE

Demand under clause (b) of the proviso to section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (the Act)

Date: 5 April 2026

Place: Ludhiana

This notice is sent by registered post with acknowledgement due. A copy is also sent by email to accounts@bhullaragro.example.com.

To: Bhullar Agro Implements Private Limited, Plot 38, Focal Point, Phase V, Ludhiana 141010, and, the drawer being a company, to each of the following persons, who were in charge of, or responsible for, its affairs when the cheque was issued, in the role stated against the name: Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, managing director, House No. 55, Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana 141001; and Navneet Kaur Bhullar, director in charge of accounts and payments, of the same address

From: Harjinder Singh Gill, House No. 214, Model Town Extension, Ludhiana 141002 (email harjinder.gill@example.com, telephone +91 98150 42117), called the Payee in this notice, sent through Amandeep Kaur Sidhu, Advocate, Chamber No. 118, Lawyers' Chambers, District Courts, Ludhiana 141001, on the Payee's instructions

Subject: Cheque No. 004517 dated 1 April 2026 for ₹11,80,000 (Rupees Eleven Lakh Eighty Thousand only), returned unpaid, and demand for its amount

  1. The debt. The Payee supplied you 40 tonnes of hot-rolled steel sheets against your purchase order No. BAI/PO/2026/118 dated 14 May 2026, under tax invoice No. HSG/26-27/041 dated 20 May 2026, and you took delivery on 22 May 2026. On the day the cheque was given, ₹11,80,000 (Rupees Eleven Lakh Eighty Thousand only) was due from you to the Payee on that account, a debt enforceable at law. The cheque was given to discharge that debt in full.
  1. The cheque. You drew cheque No. 004517 dated 1 April 2026 for ₹11,80,000 (Rupees Eleven Lakh Eighty Thousand only) on Punjab National Bank, Focal Point branch, Ludhiana, from current account No. 0401002100045171 held by you, payable to the Payee, and handed it over at the Payee's office in Ludhiana on 20 June 2026, against the invoice. You signed the cheque yourself, on an account you hold. The person who signed it was Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, managing director.
  1. Presentation. The Payee presented the cheque for payment on 2 April 2026 through the Payee's savings account No. 30112233445 with State Bank of India, Model Town branch, Ludhiana. That was within three months of the date the cheque bears, and so within its period of validity.
  1. The return. The bank on which the cheque is drawn returned it unpaid under a return memo dated 3 April 2026. The reason the memo gives is "funds insufficient". A return for that reason is a dishonour within section 138 of the Act. Want of funds and excess over the arrangement with the bank are named in the section itself, and the Supreme Court has held that returns marked account closed, payment stopped, refer to drawer, signatures do not match or image not found are dishonour within it (Laxmi Dyechem, (2012) 13 SCC 375, para 15).

What this document is for

A payee whose cheque has come back from the bank unpaid uses this to demand the money — or, failing that, to earn the right to prosecute the drawer. A bounced cheque only becomes a criminal matter once a written demand like this one has gone out within 30 days of learning the cheque was returned.

It records every date a court will later check: when the cheque was presented, when and why it came back, and the day the return memo actually reached you — so nothing about timing is left to memory months later. It then gives the drawer fifteen days from receiving the notice to pay the cheque amount before a criminal complaint becomes possible.

Before you use this — sending it late can cost you the right to prosecute

This notice is not optional paperwork sitting alongside the option to sue — it is the legal precondition for the criminal route under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. Send it late, or skip it, and the right to prosecute on that cheque can be lost even where the underlying debt is entirely genuine.

Stamp paper and registration

Stamp paper needed

No

Typical stamp duty — Punjab

None. A demand for a debt already owed on a cheque already given creates, transfers or extinguishes no right, so it is not an "instrument" within section 2(14) of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 at all, and no stamp paper is bought for it.

Typical stamp duty — Chandigarh

None, for the same reason — this notice is not a chargeable instrument in either place.

Registration at the Sub-Registrar

No — Not registrable anywhere — no clause of section 17(1) of the Registration Act, 1908 reaches a demand for money that affects no immovable property. What actually matters is proof of WHEN it was sent and delivered, not any registration: keep the postal or courier receipt, the tracking report and the acknowledgement.

Notary or witnesses

Neither. The payee, or an advocate acting on the payee's instructions, signs alone — no notary's attestation and no witness is part of what makes this notice effective.

What you will need before you start

  • The cheque itself — its number, date, amount, and the bank, branch and account it is drawn on
  • The bank's return memo — its date, and the exact reason given for the return
  • The date YOU actually received that return memo, since the 30-day clock for sending this notice runs from there, not from the cheque's own date
  • Full addresses for the payee and the drawer, and if the drawer is a company, the names of the officers who should also receive a copy
  • A postal or courier method you can get a delivery receipt and tracking report for — proof of delivery matters as much as sending it on time

Common mistakes

  • Counting the 30 days from the date on the cheque, or from when it was presented, instead of from the day the bank's return memo actually reached you — that received date is when the clock really starts.
  • Demanding more than the cheque amount in the main demand — keeping interest and other charges as a separate claim protects the statutory demand itself from being challenged as overstated.
  • Sending the notice by a method with no proof of delivery — without a tracking report and acknowledgement, it can be hard to show a court the demand reached the drawer within the fifteen days that matter.

Questions people ask before using this document

How many days do I have to send a cheque dishonour notice after the cheque bounces?

Thirty days — but the clock starts from the day you received the bank's information that the cheque was returned, not from the date on the cheque and not from the date it was presented. Keep the date you actually got the return memo clearly on record, because that single date decides whether the notice is on time.

Does this notice need to be sent by registered post?

The notice itself doesn't have to go by any one particular method, but you do need to be able to prove it was sent within 30 days and reached the drawer. A method that gives you a dated receipt and a delivery record — registered post with acknowledgement due, or speed post with tracking — is what actually protects you later; a method with no proof of delivery leaves the timeline impossible to establish if it is disputed.

Can I claim interest along with the cheque amount in this notice?

This notice keeps the statutory demand to the cheque amount alone, and treats interest, bank charges or other costs as a separate claim stated apart from that demand. That is deliberate: the section 138 demand is for the cheque amount specifically, and keeping other sums out of it avoids giving the drawer grounds to argue the statutory demand itself was for the wrong figure.

What happens if the drawer does not pay within 15 days of receiving the notice?

Once those fifteen days pass without payment, the offence under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 is complete, and the payee may file a criminal complaint before the Magistrate having jurisdiction — punishable with imprisonment of up to two years, a fine of up to twice the cheque amount, or both. Keep the notice, its proof of delivery, and the cheque and return memo together, since all of them go into that complaint.

Can I send this notice again if the cheque bounces a second time?

A fresh presentation and a fresh return start the 30-day notice clock again from that later return, provided the cheque is still being presented within its own period of validity. Treat each return on its own dates rather than assuming the first notice already covers a later bounce of the same cheque.

Related documents, and when you would need them

Questions about this document

Does the Cheque Dishonour Legal Notice need stamp paper or stamp duty in Punjab and Chandigarh?

Punjab and Chandigarh: no stamp duty is payable on this notice. It demands payment of a cheque already given and creates, transfers or extinguishes no right, so it is not an instrument within section 2(14) of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899; the payee signs it alone, and it is evidence of the demand, not a new obligation.

Does the Cheque Dishonour Legal Notice need registration in Punjab and Chandigarh?

Punjab and Chandigarh: the notice is not registrable, because no clause of section 17(1) of the Registration Act, 1908 reaches a demand for money that affects no immovable property. What matters is proof that it went out within 30 days of the bank's information and of the day it was delivered: keep the postal or courier receipt, the tracking report and the acknowledgement card with the office copy.

What does the Cheque Dishonour Legal Notice cost on Kaagazaat?

₹99, GST included.

Launch period: downloads are free for now. The prices shown apply once payments open.

Does the Cheque Dishonour Legal Notice need witnesses?

Punjab and Chandigarh: no witness signs. The payee, or the advocate acting on the payee's instructions, signs alone, and the dispatch receipt, the tracking report and the acknowledgement card prove that the notice was sent and received.

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