The court process runs on a vocabulary of its own. Here is what the terms on this page actually mean.
- §138, Negotiable Instruments Act
- The law that makes issuing a cheque that later bounces a criminal offence, and sets out how the complaint is filed and tried.
- Return memo
- The slip a bank issues when a cheque is dishonoured, stating why it didn't clear. It is the founding piece of evidence for the case.
- Scrutiny & the FSO
- The court's first check that a new complaint is complete and correctly filed, carried out by the Filing Scrutiny Officer (a court clerk) or the judge.
- Registration & PCR number
- Logging the complaint into the court's records. It is entered in the Private Complaint Register (PCR) and given a number that tracks it thereafter.
- Cognizance
- The judge formally deciding there is enough in the complaint to proceed, at which point a private complaint becomes a criminal case.
- Summons
- The court's official order telling the respondent to appear on a given date.
- Process fee
- The charge the complainant pays to cover the cost of preparing and delivering the summons.
- RPAD & AD card
- Registered Post with Acknowledgement Due: registered post whose acknowledgement-due (AD) card is signed on delivery and returned to court as proof of service.
- CIS
- The Case Information System, the software that tracks the status, dates and orders of every case. In Kerala it is integrated with e-filing.
- Vakalat
- The document by which a litigant authorises an advocate to represent them in the case.
- Bail & surety
- Bail is the accused's conditional release pending trial; a surety, a person or a cash deposit, guarantees they will keep attending hearings.
- BW / NBW
- A Bailable or Non-Bailable Warrant: an order to secure the respondent's presence when they fail to appear despite being summoned.
- Proclamation
- A public notice, published in a newspaper, ordering a person who is evading the court to appear, used when a warrant cannot be executed.
