IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Cr.Misc. No.36704 of 2007 BINOD KUMAR SINHA, S/o Chandra Bhushan Sinha, Branch Manager, Martin & Harris Pvt. Ltd. Ariff Manzil, Naya Tola, P.S. Pirbahore, Patna. …. Petitioner Versus 1. STATE OF BIHAR 2. Bhola Nath Dubey, S/o Late Shiv Shankar Dubey, Proprietor, M/s Susnrise Transport Corportion, Janak Kishore Road, P.S. Kadamkuan, District Patna. Opp. Parties For the petitioner : Mr. Avanish Kumar Singh, Advocate For the State : Mr. Jharkhandi Upadhaya, A.P.P. For O.P. No. 2 : Mr. Om Prakash, Advocate --------- 3 27.11.2008 The petitioner has challenged the order dated 29.12.2006 passed in Complaint Case No. 2130(C) of 2006 by Sri B.K.Choudhary, the learned Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Patna, , whereby he has taken cognizance under sections 420 and 406 I.P.C. According to the complainant, impleaded herein as O.P. No. 2, who is owner of M/S Sunrise Transport Corporation, he had the occasion to transport certain consignment of medicines of the accused on different dates from Patna to other districts of the State. The grievance of the complainant was that although the consignments were delivered to the proper owners, monthly loss was being caused to him by non payments of the bills. Apparently the entire transaction appears to be a commercial transaction as freight bills of the complainant have not been cleared by the accused persons. In other words the cases in respect of recovery of money dues and such demands would not fall within the ambit and scope of criminal prosecution. The Hon’ble Apex Court as also this Court in a catena of decisions have - 2 - strongly deprecated filing of criminal cases in order to pressurize the party to bring to quick end, their claims based on civil dispute. Reference in this connection may be made to the cases of G. Sagar Suri Vs. The State of U.P. reported in 2000(2) SCC 636 and in Indian Oil Corporation Vs. N.E.P.C. (AIR 2006 SC 2780). In my opinion this criminal prosecution is an abuse of the process of the Court and is required to be quashed. There appears merit in this application. Pursuing a criminal matter for enforcing advantage in civil disputes cannot be termed as offences under the criminal law. In the result the application is allowed and the impugned order is hereby quashed. Spd/- (Abhijit Sinha, J.)