STATE Vs. R. VASANTHI STANLEY AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The seminal issues that emanate for consideration, unequivocally on the bedrock of fiscal sanctity and decidedly on the plinth of prevalent mindset of borrowers from public financial institutions including banks, are whether a borrower or borrowers after availing finance by creating mortgage on the base of certain documents which, as alleged, are forged, and ingeniously adopt the same modus operandi to avail the benefit from number of banks, who in due course facing the problem set the criminal law in motion by lodging different FIRs and in the ultimate eventuate in an adroit manner enter into settlements and pay the amount and thereafter, knock at the doors of the High Court seeking exercise of inherent jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) or the extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution for quashment of the criminal proceedings; and should the High Court on the foundation that the continuance of the criminal proceedings would be a Sisyphean endeavour after the settlement has taken place to quash the same; and further whether a former Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes can be allowed to advance a plea, obviously a remarkable one, that she had signed the documents either as a guarantor or as a co-applicant, showing deference to her late husband's desire; and, therefore, this Court, in exercise of power under Article 136 of the Constitution, should not unsettle the common order by which the High Court has quashed criminal proceedings. Additionally, it has also become obligatory to decisively lay down whether continuance of such proceedings would be an unnecessary load on the criminal justice dispensation system and hence, there is neither any warrant nor justification for interference with the order of the High Court. We are invited by the astute proponements to dwell upon the said issues, and we shall do so in due course of our delineation.

(2.) The factual narrative has a narrow compass. The first respondent, accused no.2, along with her husband submitted an application for home loan to the Centurion Bank of Punjab, presently known as HDFC Bank Ltd. for a sum of Rs.6 lakhs by depositing the sale deed dated 31.10.2001. The HDFC Bank found that documents were forged and accordingly filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Police, Chennai on 20.12.2005 which eventually gave rise to registration of FIR No. 579/06 dated 19.7.2006. Another FIR came to be lodged on 3.8.2006 by Bank of India, Cathedral Branch from which the couple had availed a loan of Rs.25 lakhs for a Company Development (Medicrops and Medigel) on the grounds that the documents were forged. On 10.7.2006, Vijaya Bank, G.N. Chetty Road Branch filed a complaint that the husband of the accused had applied for a mortgage loan of Rs.18 lakhs with forged documents by depositing the title deed and the wife stood as a surety. Taking into consideration the complaints lodged by the aforesaid banks, the Inspector of Police, Central Crime Branch, Team-XII, Egmore Chennai, registered the FIRs and commenced the investigation. When the matter stood thus, the Syndicate Bank, Mylapore Branch filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Police, Chennai on 11.01.2007 to the effect that the husband of the first respondent herein had submitted an application for grant of home improvement loan for a sum of Rs.12 lakhs with forged documents and the wife was the guarantor and on that basis another FIR was registered and investigation took place. Thus, the first respondent was a co-applicant in respect of the loans availed from HDFC Bank and Bank of India and was a guarantor in respect of the loans availed from Vijaya Bank and Syndicate Bank. FIR Nos. in respect of HDFC Bank, Bank of India, Vijaya Bank and Syndicate Bank were 579/06, 643/06, 550/06 and 206/07 respectively. After due investigation, chargesheets were filed before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai and Metropolitan Magistrate, Saidepet, Chennai and the proceedings before the trial court were instituted bearing CC No. 1624/2010, CC No. 5669/2010, CC No. 6258/2010 and CC No. 11697/2010.

(3.) After placing of the chargesheets, the accused persons moved the High Court in Criminal OP No. 14759-14762 of 2011 for quashing of the criminal proceedings. During the pendency of the cases, the husband, accused No.1 breathed his last and thereafter before the High Court it was contended that she was not aware of any transaction done by her husband as she was working as a public servant and that apart she was not aware of the business activities carried on by her husband; that she had signed the documents as instructed by her husband without any intention or knowledge to cheat the banks; that after demise of her husband, she had come to know about the cases pending against her due to the alleged involvement of her husband and immediately she had taken necessary steps to settle the entire dues of the banks and, therefore, there was no justification for continuance of the criminal proceedings.