Citation: Pico Capital Pvt. Ltd. (formerly Mode Export Pvt. Ltd.) v. Vinod Kumar Chaturvedi & Ors., Interim Application No. 2891 of 2026 in Writ Petition No. 3189 of 2014, decided on 30.09.2026 | 2026:BHC-AS:39870
A High Court will not recall an order passed on the merits just because a party was unrepresented on the date of final hearing, especially when that party had earlier sought adjournments, the case is old, and no good reason is given for the delay in seeking recall. An order decided after examining the complaint and documents under the relevant law needs a real defect to be recalled.
The Bombay High Court has refused to recall its own earlier order that had quashed a cheque bounce case, because the complainant company was absent when it was passed and then waited about nine months to challenge it. Pico Capital (earlier Mode Export) had filed a Section 138 and 141 NI Act complaint against Vinod Kumar Chaturvedi, the managing director of Usher Agro. It said he had induced it to give a Rs 150 lakh inter-corporate deposit to another company and had promised to be personally liable. A magistrate issued process against him in 2013, and he challenged this in a writ petition filed in 2014. On 18 September 2025 the High Court quashed the process order after hearing the matter on its merits. Pico Capital then asked for the order to be recalled, saying it had been contesting the case since 2014, but there was no effective lawyer for it at the final hearing because of a change of advocate whose NOC was pending, and it did not know the case had been listed. The MD opposed this, pointing out the nine-month delay, and argued that the High Court cannot recall a merits order under Section 482 CrPC because of the bar in Section 362 CrPC. Justice Neela Gokhale dismissed the application. She noted that the earlier order was decided on merits after examining the complaint and documents under Sections 138 and 141. The company had itself sought adjournments on three dates in 2016, and later adjournments were for paucity of court time or on joint request. The court found no flaw in the order and no good reason for recalling it.