law: Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 
  138. Dishonor of cheque for insufficiency, etc., of funds
  
  in the accounts  
  Where any cheque drawn by a person on an account maintained by
  
  him with a banker for payment of any amount of money to another person from out
  
  of that account for the discharge, in whole or in part, of any debt or other
  
  liability, is returned by the bank unpaid, either because of the amount of
  
  money standing to the credit of that account is insufficient to honor the
  
  cheque or that it exceeds the amount arranged to be paid from that account by
  
  an agreement made with that bank, such person shall be deemed to have committed
  
  an offence and shall without prejudice to any other provisions of this Act, be
  
  punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with
  
  fine which may extend to twice the amount of the cheque, or with both:
  PROVIDED  that nothing contained in this section shall
  
  apply unless- 
  (a) the cheque has been presented to the bank within a period of
  
  six months from the date on which it is drawn or within the period of its
  
  validity, whichever is earlier.
  (b) the payee or the holder in due course of the cheque, as the
  
  case may be, makes a demand for the payment of the said amount of money by
  
  giving a notice, in writing, to the drawer of the cheque, within fifteen days
  
  of the receipt of information by him from the bank regarding the return of the
  
  cheque as unpaid, and
  (c) the drawer of such cheque fails to make the payment of the
  
  said amount of money to the payee or, as the case may be, to the holder in due
  
  course of the cheque, within fifteen days of the receipt of the said notice.
  Explanation:  For the purpose of this section, "debt or
  
  other liability" means a legally enforceable debt or other liability.
  Comment:  As the signature in the cheque is admitted to
  
  be that of the accused, the presumption envisaged in Section 118 of the Act can
  
  legally be inferred that the cheque was made or drawn for consideration on the
  
  date which the cheque bears. Section 139 of the Act enjoins on the Court to
  
  presume that the holder of the cheque received it for the discharge of any debt
  
  or liability. The burden was on the accused to rebut the aforesaid presumption.
  
  K. Bhaskaran, Appellant v. Sankaran Vaidhyan Balan, AIR 1999