The main legal point established in the judgment is the principle of vicarious liability, where the respondent was held responsible for the fraud committed by its officer in the course of business.

1. The instant application is filed by the plaintiff/petitioner for final judgment and decree against the defendant/respondent for a sum of Rs. 1,24,77,15,252.03 together with the interest at the rate of 18% per annum. Admittedly, the defendants have not filed the written statement as on the date of the filing of the instant application and the relief’s claimed in the instant application is in the nature of summary judgment.

2. The fact emerged from the application is that the petitioner is a registered non banking financial company for providing loans for infrastructure projects in the State of West Bengal. For smooth running of the business, the petitioner raises money from the public upon issuance of the Government guaranteed bonds. Some of the bonds so issued have been rated by approved rating agencies and during the year 2005 to 2008 and 2010/2011 the petitioner issued the bond series of Rs. 1000 Crores, which were approved by a rating agency like Credit Analysis and Research Limited, India Rating and Research Pvt. Ltd. and Brickwork Rating India Pvt. Ltd. The salient conditions of those bonds as imposed by the rating agencies was that a sinking fund ought to be created for the purpose of securing the redemption of bonds. Such sinking fund are required to be kept with the lying under bond trusties accumulating to full or partial redemption value of the relevant bond series as per the terms and conditions of the approved rating agencies. Axis Bank Ltd. and Axis Trustee Services Ltd. are the bond trusties in respect of the aforesaid bond series.

3. In compliance of those conditions, the petitioner created various term deposits and recurring deposits in various banks for maintaining sinking funds and during the financial year 2011-2012 several deposits were made in different banks to the tune of Rs. 3,872.82 Crores having maturity value as on 31st March, 2012. For the next Financial Year 2012-2013, the deposits to the tune of Rs. 2,563 Crores maturity value were also made in various banks.

4. The petitioner claimed to have long standing relationship with the respondent in maintaining various term deposits with its different branches. In 2005, the petitioner deposited a sum of Rs. 9 Crores with the Circus Avenue Branch of the respondent under term deposit. Since, there is an involvement of the transfer of large value, the facility of Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) introduced by the Reserve Bank of India was availed of by the petitioner for various term deposits in the different banks as well as the various branches of the respondent.

5. The petitioner intended to make a term deposit of Rs. 59 Crores in a public/private sector bank for the purpose of creating a sinking fund for one of the bond series. The Circus Avenue Branch of the respondent in its letter dated 30th August, 2012 quoted the best interest rate on bulk term deposits exceeding Rs. 10 Crores and also intimated the account number with RTGS code to facilitate the transfer of high value through such mechanism. Since the rate of interest was the base rate offered by the said branch of the respondent, it was approved in a resolution of the investment committee of the petitioner and appros the same an instruction was given to Bank of India, Corporate Banking Branch being the petitioner’s banker to transfer the said amount from the existing over draft account to the account number provided by the respondent in the said letter dated 30th August 2012. The said term deposit is to be kept in the name of the petitioner as beneficiary. Immediately, upon receipt of the said amount, the petitioner’s banker namely Bank of India issued a confirmation letter, which was intimated by the petitioner to the Circus Avenue Branch of the petitioner with necessary direction to keep the said amount under a term deposit for three years at the rate of 9.65% per annum, which was duly acknowledged.

6. In or about 2013, another term deposit of Rs. 61 Crores was also transferred to the C