The main legal point established in the judgment is that the act of registering a crime with the CBI during the subsistence of an interim order and the pendency of reconsideration of the declaration of the petitioner as a willful defaulter was an abuse of the process of law.

JUDGMENT

1. The petitioners are before this Court calling in question registration of crime in RC0782021E0002 for offences punishable under Ss. 420, 468, 471 r/w Sec. 120B of the IPC and Ss. 7, 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988.

2. Brief facts that led the petitioners to this Court in the subject petition are as follows:-

The 1st petitioner - M/s Steel Hypermart Indian Private Limited ('the Company' for short) was established by one Mahendra Kumar Singhi, the 2nd petitioner herein with the objective of trading in various iron and steel products like hot rolled, cold rolled, coated colour roofing sheets, colls and angles. The company was sanctioned an open cash credit limit of Rs.137.50 crores by the Indian Bank against an already sanctioned limit of Rs.125.00 crores by the State Bank of India. On 8/2/2018 when the Bank of Baroda joined the consortium with a cash credit limit of Rs.24.50 crores, joint documentation of Rs.162.00 crores which was the outer limit was done in favour of Directors of the Company. By 30-06- 2018 the Company closed the loan by paying it in full to the Indian Bank and as on 1/10/2018 it had excess ad hoc limit of Rs.13.75 crores.

3. When things stood thus, on 9/1/2019 a GST raid was conducted against the 1st petitioner/Company and all the records were seized and directions were issued to the Banks not to interact with the Company. Due to this problem, the loans of the 1st petitioner insofar as they pertain to the Banks i.e., Indian Bank and Bank of Baroda slipped into becoming a Non-Performing Asset (NPA) and having waited for another year, the consortium of Banks which was consisting State Bank of India, Indian Bank headed by Bank of Baroda caused a legal notice upon the Company under Sec. 13(2) of the SARFAESI Act. On 29/5/2019 one of the member of the consortium i.e., Bank of Baroda declared the accounts of the Company with them as NPA. The petitioners replied to the legal notice issued by the Indian Bank and the Indian Bank on consideration of the reply notice went on to exercise its powers under Sec. 13(4) of the SARFAESI Act and sought to mortgage immovable properties of the petitioners. This came about on 22/7/2019.

4. Since GST raid had been conducted, a forensic audit was sought to be conducted of the accounts with the consortium of Banks covering the period from 26/9/2017 to 31/5/2019 and pending report of the forensic audit, the Indian Bank sought to proceed further in terms of a notice that was given on 22/7/2019 under Sec. 13(4) of the SARFAESI Act by issuing possession notices. Those possession notices were challenged before this Court in Writ Petition No.32112 of 2019. This Court did not entertain the petition, but directed the petitioners to approach the Debt Recovery Tribunal at Bangalore under the provisions of the SARFAESI Act . The respondents began to seal the godowns of the petitioners situated in Karnataka which came to be challenged before this Court and other parts of the country wherever godowns were sought to be sealed and on 14/2/2020 the Indian Bank issued a communication to the petitioners informing them that the Bank has taken a decision to declare the Company as 'willful defaulter' and a notice with regard to the same was issued upon the petitioners on 20/2/2020. This was called in question before this Court in Writ Petition No. 4777 of 2020. This Court by its order dtd. 2/3/2020 stayed all further proceedings initiated by the Bank which was to be in operation till the next date of hearing.

5. Pending the aforesaid writ petition, the other member of the consortium namely Bank of Baroda gave its consent to the Indian Bank which was the leader of the consortium for filing of a complaint with the CBI in terms of its communication dtd. 9/3/2020. It is here the respondent/CBI comes into the picture. A case in No.RC0782021E0002 came to be registered by the CBI, Banking Securities Fraud Branch on 12/1/2021 against the petitioners for offences punishabl