Pulling up Uttar Pradesh police over frequent conversion of civil cases into criminal cases, Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna today said this is “wrong” and shows a “complete breakdown” of the rule of law. The court warned it will order damages if similar petitions are filed in the future. The court paused criminal prosecution in a case, and asked Uttar Pradesh police chief Prashant Kumar and the investigating officer to file a response within two weeks.
The Chief Justice remarked that lawyers in Uttar Pradesh have forgotten about the civil jurisdiction.
The case in question related to a cheque bounce case. The police had issued a summons and filed a chargesheet after converting the civil suit into a criminal case. The petitioner approached the court against this and alleged that the police took bribes for converting the case.
“This is wrong, what is happening in UP. Everyday civil suits are being converted to criminal cases. It’s absurd, merely not giving money cannot be turned into an offence. I will ask the Investigation Officer (IO) to come to the witness box. Let the IO stand in the witness box and make out the case of crime. We direct it, let him learn his lesson, this is not the way you file chargesheets,” the Chief Justice said, adding, It is strange, this is happening day in and day out in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
This is not the first time the Chief Justice has flagged the growing trend of conversion of civil cases into criminal cases. In December last year, he had noted that this practice was “rampant” in some states. He had said that frequently converting civil cases into criminal cases burdened the judiciary with matters that can be dealt with by civil jurisdiction.
