MUNIR ESMAIL MOHAMMED Vs. ICICI BANK LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard both sides. The petitioner herein, who is the sole accused in C.C. No. 4316 of 2007 on the file of X Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai, has come forward with the present petition to quash the proceedings.

(2.) The relief sought for by the petitioner is mainly on the ground that the private complaint filed by the respondent against the petitioner for the offences under Sections 406 and 420 IPC is not sustainable as there is no element of cheating either in obtaining the personal loan or in complying with the conditions for issuance of such loan and the offences under Sections 406 and 420 IPC cannot be attracted for mere non payment of loan, which is only an actionable claim to be agitated before the civil court of law.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner has in support of his contention also cited the authority reported in P. Ashok Kumar and another v. Inspector of Police, Crime, V3 J.J. Nagar Police Station, Chennai,LNIND 2008 0 MAD 2731, wherein, the learned brother judge R. Regupathi, J., was pleased to heavily comment upon the illegal practice of the Magistrates in referring the civil disputes for police investigation or taking cognizance by themselves, by illegally imputing criminal flavor to civil disputes. The learned brother Judge has expressed his anguish over such action of the Magistrates and observed that such action is not only inappropriate, but also legally untenable. The learned brother Judge has also gone to the extent of saying that the same elicited their unwanted intention to aid one party and to intimidate the other party. The learned brother Judge has considered the pendency of number of cases against borrowers in various courts, even beyond territorial jurisdiction and having recorded the conduct of financial institution in approaching the Magistrates to procure an order so that they can extract through police the principal amount and whatever rate of interest they charge from the borrowers, expressed his anguish in very strong language and found fault with the Magistrates, who failed to follow the guidelines issued by the Hon'ble Apex court for exercising greater caution in this regard. The learned brother Judge, on the basis of statistics furnished to the Court, has found that the immersion of civil disputes with criminal charges is immensely growing with each passing day and in the opinion of this court, the same is humanly not possible, if there is proper application of mind and taking cognisance by the Magistrates is on the mere request of the Bankers with an ulterior motive and in collusion and conspiracy with them and such illegal practice has made by the Magistrate Courts breeding points of pendency of unnecessary criminal cases reflecting its adverse effect at all levels upto the Supreme Court. In the light of the detailed discussion made therein, the learned brother Judge issued the following directions: