Recovery · Free calculator
Enter the bank return date and get every date that matters: notice by, drawer pays by, and the last day to file.
Check your compliance exposure — free All calculatorsFor an employee whose last drawn basic plus dearness allowance was ₹50,000, with 10 completed years of service: 15 × ₹50,000 × 10 ÷ 26 = ₹2,88,462. Wages here means basic plus DA, not gross — using gross is the usual reason a figure comes out too high.
Thirty days from receiving information from the bank that the cheque was dishonoured, under proviso (b) to section 138. The period runs from the bank return memo. Missing it ends the section 138 remedy for that presentation, though the underlying debt survives.
After the drawer has failed to pay within 15 days of receiving your demand notice. The cause of action arises on the expiry of those 15 days, and section 142(1)(b) requires the complaint to be filed within one month of that date.
Three months from the date written on it. A cheque presented after that is returned as stale, which is not a dishonour under section 138, so no offence arises and only the civil debt remains.
A cheque may be presented again within its validity period, and a fresh dishonour gives a fresh 30-day notice window. It does not, however, revive a notice period already missed on an earlier dishonour.