New Delhi, Sept. 27 -- Expressing concern over the pendency of "staggeringly high" numbers of cheque dishonour cases in district courts of major cities,the Supreme Court (SC) has issued fresh guidelines to reduce the backlog which included voluntary compromises and release of accused on probation.

A bench of Justices Manmohan and NV Anjaria, while dealing with the cheque bounce cases where the Bombay High Court reversed the concurrent finding of the district courts to release the accused, tweaked the 15-year-old guidelines on compounding of offences under the Negotiable Instruments (NI) Act.

It said this court takes judicial notice of the fact that despite repeated directions by this court in variousjudgments, the pendency of cheque bou...