Central Bank Act, 1989.

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Amendment of Bills of Exchange Act, 1882.

132.—(1) The Bills of Exchange Act, 1882 , is hereby amended:

(a) in section 2:

(i) by the insertion of the following definition after the definition of “Bill”:

“‘Business days’ means those days which are not non-business days.”,

(ii) by the insertion of the following definition after the definition of “Issue”:

“‘Non-business days’ means—

(a) Saturday, except in a case and to the extent to which the proviso to the paragraph numbered (1) of section 14 of this Act applies,

(b) Sunday,

(c) such days as are public holidays, and

(d) where and to the extent that any direction under section 134 of the Central Bank Act, 1989, provides, such other day or days as so provided.”,

and

(iii) by the insertion of the following definition after the definition of “Person”:

“‘Public holiday’ has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973 .”,

(b) in section 14, by the substitution of the following paragraph for the paragraph numbered (1):

“(1) The bill is due and payable in all cases on the last day of the time of payment as fixed by the bill or, if that is a non-business day, on the succeeding business day:

Provided that nothing in this paragraph shall operate to prevent a bill being paid by the drawee on a Saturday (other than a Saturday that is a public holiday or to which paragraph (d) of the definition of ‘non-business days’ in section 2 of this Act relates) or cause him to incur any liability thereby, where—

(a) the drawee is a banker, and

(b) the Saturday concerned is the last day fixed by the bill as the time of payment, and

(c) the drawee is normally open for business on a Saturday at his address given in or ascertainable from the bill,

and, accordingly, presentation and payment of such a bill on the Saturday shall be valid and shall discharge it as fully as if it had been presented and paid on the next succeeding business day: but this provision shall not be construed as compelling the person entitled to payment on the bill to accept such payment on the Saturday.”,

(c) by the insertion of the following section after section 45:

“Additional rules as to presentment of cheques and other documents.

45A. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, presentment for payment of a cheque may be made by a banker (in this section referred to as the ‘collecting banker’) on his own behalf or on behalf of a customer or any other person to the banker on whom it is drawn (in this section referred to as the ‘drawee banker’) by notification to the drawee banker of the essential features of the cheque other than by its physical presentment, whether by the transmission of an electronic message or by any other means.

(2) A drawee banker to whom a cheque is presented by notification in the manner provided for in subsection (1) of this section may, before the close of business on the next business day following receipt of such notification, request the collecting banker that the cheque be physically presented to him.

(3) A request by the drawee banker for physical presentment of a cheque in accordance with subsection (2) of this section shall not constitute dishonour of the cheque by non-payment.

(4) A cheque paid upon presentment in the manner provided for in subsection (1) of this section shall be deemed to have been paid in the ordinary course of business.

(5) Where a cheque is presented for payment by notification in the manner provided for in subsection (1) of this section, nothing in this section shall be taken to relieve the collecting banker or the drawee banker from any liability in relation to the collection or payment of the cheque to which the collecting banker or the drawee banker would have been subject if the cheque had been physically presented for payment.

(6) This section shall apply to—

(a) any document issued by a customer of a banker which, though not a bill of exchange, is intended to enable a person to obtain payment from that banker of the sum mentioned in the document,

(b) any document issued by a public officer which is intended to enable a person to obtain payment from the Paymaster General of the sum mentioned in the document but is not a bill of exchange, and

(c) any draft payable on demand drawn by a banker upon himself, whether payable at the head office or some other office of his bank,

as it applies to cheques.

(7) In this section, unless the context otherwise requires—

‘the essential features of the cheque’ includes—

(a) the serial number of the cheque,

(b) the identification code number of the drawee banker,

(c) the account number of the drawer of the cheque,

(d) the amount of the cheque as entered by the drawer of the cheque,

and any such particulars as may be given in the form of letters or figures or any other code which as between bankers represent those particulars;

‘physical presentment’ means presentment of a cheque for payment in accordance with banking practice other than as provided for in subsection (1).”.

(2) Nothing in the other provisions of this section shall apply to any bill drawn or, by virtue of section 89 of the Bills of Exchange Act, 1882 , to any note made before the coming into operation of this section.

(3) This section shall come into operation one month after the passing of this Act.