Post Dated Cheque - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition post-dated-cheque

Definition :

Post-dated cheque, are not invalid, but the banker should not pay such a cheque if presented before the date it bears. If therefore, a cheque dated on a Sunday is presented on the previous business day, it should be returned with the answer post-dated. A post-dated cheque, however, if presented at or after its ostensible date, should be paid though the banker knows it to be post-dated, and even if it has been presented before the date and refused payment, Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th Edn., Vol. 3(1), p. 143.

Means a cheque must not be post-dated, that is, dated after the day on which it is presented for payment to the drawee branch. Post-dated cheques present for more difficulties to the banker than antedated cheques. There are practical difficulties rather than legal ones ..... But a cheque is generally post-dated because the drawer does not expect to have the funds to meet it until that date arrives. It is a mandate to the banker to the effect that it should not be paid before that date arrives, Law and Practice Relating to Banking: 1, at pp. 137.

When a post-dated cheque is written or drawn, it is only a bill of exchange and so long the same remains a bill of exchange, the provisions of s. 138 are not applicable to the said instrument. The post-dated cheque become a cheque within the meaning of s. 138 of the Act on the date which is written thereon and the six months period has to be reckoned for the purposes of Proviso (a) to s. 138 of the Act from the said date, Ashok Yeshwant Badave v. Surendra Madhavrao, AIR 2001 SC 1315 (1320): (2001) 3 SCC 726. (Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, ss. 5, 6)

Means cheques are often issued post-dated, that is to say, bearing a date later than that on which they are in fact issued. The purpose of issuing a post-dated cheque is to prevent the drawee banker from paying the cheque to the payee or a holder before the date written on the cheque. It is clear that the instrument is a cheque once the date written on it arrives. But its status is unclear prior to that date. It is arguable that, between the date of its issue and the date written on the cheque, it is not payable on demand and so cannot be a cheque but an instrument of a different kind, Chalmers & Guest on Bills of Exchange, Cheques and Promissory Notes, 15th Edn., p. 74.