Promissory notes, bills of exchange and cheques must be presented for payment to the maker, acceptor or drawee thereof respectively, by or on behalf of the holder as hereinafter provided. In default of such presentment, the other parties thereto are not liable thereon to such holder.
Where authorized by agreement or usage, a presentment through the post office by means of a registered letter is sufficient.
Notwithstanding anything contained in section 6, where an electronic image of a truncated cheque is presented for payment, the drawee bank is entitled to demand any further information regarding the truncated cheque from the bank holding the truncated cheque in case of any reasonable suspicion about the genuineness of the apparent tenor of instrument, and if the suspicion is that of any fraud, forgery, tampering or destruction of the instrument, it is entitled to further demand the presentment of the truncated cheque itself for verification:
Provided that the truncated cheque so demanded by the drawee bank shall be retained by it, if the payment is made accordingly.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 64
Section 64 establishes the general rule that promissory notes, bills of exchange, and cheques must be presented for payment to the maker, acceptor, or drawee thereof, and that default of presentment discharges all other parties.
In Section 138 prosecutions, presentment of the cheque to the drawee bank within its validity period (currently 3 months under RBI regulations) is mandatory under Section 138(a) and Section 64. Presentment after expiry of validity completely bars criminal prosecution.