--- title: "Is a court fee is applicable for Complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act?" description: "Is a court fee is applicable for Complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act?" author: "Lily Chitlangiya" published: 2021-11-29 canonical: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/94209/is-a-court-fee-is-applicable-for-complaints-under-section-138-of-the-negotiable-instruments-act category: "law & legal issues" tags: ["laws", "laws and legal issues"] reading_time: 3 minutes --- # Is a court fee is applicable for Complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act? Is a court [fee](https://www.mindstick.com/news/2253/twitter-shall-be-charging-a-fee-of-20-per-account-for-verification) is applicable for Complaints under [Section](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/84187/why-i-have-really-enjoyed-posting-our-thoughts-on-yourviews-section-of-mindstick) 138 of the Negotiable [Instruments Act](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/94212/what-is-the-time-limit-for-filing-a-complaint-under-section-138-of-the-negotiable-instruments-act-in-the-court-of-magistrate)? ## Answers ### Answer by Sanjay Goenka **Yes**, a very **small amount of normal fee is applicable to file a case** under section **138 of the Negotiation Instrument** \ Generally, it is known in the Courts that **a nominal fee of something about 5 or 2 rupees is applicable** in the filing of the cases under **section 138 of the NI act.** It also varies from state to state like in **[Gurgaon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurgaon)** it is **2 rupees** and in**[Maharashtra,](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/92713/why-people-worship-lord-ganesha-more-in-maharashtra)**it is **5 rupees**. Besides this, if I talk about the general fees of filing criminal cases then there are **not any filing charges are required**. Excluding some of the general charges in the photostat and some tickets which are used during making the file ready for filing. \ ![Is a court fee is applicable for Complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act?](https://answers.mindstick.com/questionanswer/c940d139-822c-4582-9253-f54bd8a1892a/images/56eaca03-e0ee-4929-9e6e-a2435195144d.jpeg)\ \ **Section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument act** In this **section of the act**, the p**rovision of punishment has been given** to the payee who **didn’t get his money or the promised** return from the drawer who make any promise or sign a contract with the person to pay him, an amount of money, **debt mone**y, **hundies**, **Liquidated damage of the drawer money.** If the cheque is dishonored then the payee can go to Court in order to avail his legal remedy, in which the court can punish him with imprisonment of up to **2 years or the double amount of the [cheque](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/94210/what-is-the-time-limit-for-sending-legal-notice-in-case-of-return-of-cheque). Or with both.** \ **Process of filing petition** - The **payee should submit the cheque to the bank within the time three months of issuing or the validity date of the cheque.** - The **cheque should be get dishonored** by the bank while the payee submits it to the bank to get money. - The same person who is the **payee in this situation should send a legal notice to the drawer** related to the information of dishonoring of the cheque. - The drawer has **15 days of the period to return** his money as was mentioned in the cheque. - After the **expiry of the 15 days** of the period of the informing about the notice, the **payee can file a Criminal petition** in the related court to take his money or compel the defendant to obey his promissory notes or contract. --- Original Source: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/94209/is-a-court-fee-is-applicable-for-complaints-under-section-138-of-the-negotiable-instruments-act Copyright © MindStick Software Pvt. Ltd. This Markdown version is provided for developers, AI systems, and offline reading.