Supreme Court quashes SC/ST Act case against bank officials in loan dispute

The Supreme Court has held that the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act cannot be invoked in what is essentially a commercial loan dispute. A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran quashed the 2019 FIR registered against State Bank of India officers at the CID police station in Hyderabad, holding that non-compliance with RBI guidelines cannot trigger criminal prosecution merely because the borrower company's directors belong to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe communities, in the absence of any specific allegation of caste-based denigration. The dispute arose after the accounts of Hritasha Infra Projects Private Limited turned NPA in 2016, and the Court said grievances such as forgery or denial of a rehabilitation package can be raised before forums such as the Debts Recovery Tribunal. Read more at Deccan Herald and Verdictum. (Deccanherald, Verdictum)

• The Supreme Court has held that the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act cannot be invoked in what is essentially a commercial loan dispute.
• A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran quashed the 2019 FIR registered against State Bank of India officers at the CID police station in Hyderabad, holding that non-compliance with RBI guidelines cannot t
• The dispute arose after the accounts of Hritasha Infra Projects Private Limited turned NPA in 2016, and the Court said grievances such as forgery or denial of a rehabilitation package can be raised before forums such as