‘Very sad’ courts mix up criminal breach of trust & cheating, says SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said it was “very sad” that courts have not been able to understand the fine distinction between criminal breach of trust and cheating despite the penal law being in force for over 162 years.

Unfortunately, it has become a common practice for police to routinely and mechanically proceed to register an FIR for both the offences on a mere allegation of some dishonesty or fraud, without any proper application of mind, it said.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said it was high time that police officials across the country were imparted proper training in law so as to understand the fine distinction between the offences of cheating and criminal breach of trust.

“Both offences are independent and distinct. The two offences cannot co-exist simultaneously in the same set of facts. They are antithetical to each other,” the bench said.

The top court’s observations came in a verdict which set aside an Allahabad High Court order passed in April this year. The high court had declined to quash a summoning order passed by a trial court in Uttar Pradesh in a complaint case against the Delhi Race Club (1940) Ltd and others.

“Before we close this matter, we would like to say something as regards the casual approach of the courts below in cases like the one at hand. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) was the official Criminal Code in the Republic of India inherited from the British India after Independence,” the bench said.

It said the IPC came into force in the sub-continent during the British rule in 1862 and remained so for almost 162 years until it was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which came into effect on July 1, 2024.

“It is indeed very sad to note that even after these many years, the courts have not been able to understand the fine distinction between criminal breach of trust and cheating,” it said.

The top court said when dealing with a private complaint, the law enjoins upon the magistrate a duty to meticulously examine its contents so as to determine whether the offence of cheating or criminal breach of trust was made out from the averments.

It said a magistrate must carefully apply his mind to ascertain whether the allegations genuinely constitute these specific offences.