The court affirmed that criminal proceedings cannot be used as leverage in civil disputes, emphasizing the need for proof of dishonest intent and necessary ingredients for offences claimed. Lack of vicarious liability in company proceedings was also noted.

JUDGMENT :

ANANYA BANDYOPADHYAY, J.

1. The instant revisional application has been filed by the petitioner praying for quashing of the proceeding in C.R. Case No. 169 of 2014 under Sections 406 /420/467/468/120B of the INDIAN PENAL CODE pending before the Learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Siliguri, Darjeeling and all orders passed therein including the order dated 06th March, 2014.

2. The contentions of the petitioners are elucidated as follows:

The petitioner No. 1 (hereinafter referred to as “the company”) is a company duly incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, having its registered office at D-2, 5th Floor, Southern Park, Saket Palace, Saket, New Delhi-110017 and corporate office at Plot No. 14A, Sector 18, Maruti Industrial Complex, Gurgaon, Haryana. The petitioner nos. 2 to 6 officials of the company. The company is being represented by Mr. Subhendu Paul, being duly authorized by the company by a Power of Attorney dated 31st March, 2014.

3. The company is duly registered and certified as an Infrastructure Provider Category-I (IP-I) by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Department of Telecommunication, Government of India. In the normal course of its business, the company provides passive infrastructure facilities, such as telecom towers, cables etc. to the telecom companies licenced under Section 4 of the Indian TELEGRAPH ACT , 1885.

4. The company, having pioneered the concept of telecom infrastructure, is the India’s largest independent telecom infrastructure company with a portfolio of over 42,000 towers and over 98,000 tenants across all 22 telecom circles in the country. The company is an ISO 14001:2004 & OHSAS 18001:2007 certified company. The company is known for its integrity and honesty and for the said reason, is enjoying the trust and goodwill of its customers.

5. The petitioner No. 2 is working as Circle Head-West Bengal Circle of the company having its office at P.S. Srijan Tech Park, 13th Floor, Block D.N. 52, Sector V, Salt Lake City, Kolkata-700091. The petitioner No. 2 joined the company on 7th January, 2013 and is devoid of any criminal antecedent. The petitioner No. 2, being the Circle Head of the company for West Bengal circle, is responsible for operation of all the passive infrastructure services being provided by the company to the mobile operators in West Bengal. The petitioner No. 2 is constantly engaged in visiting the entire circle all over the State of West Bengal and has to hold meetings with all external and internal stakeholders for keeping up their commitments for ensuring hundred per cent network coverage for the mobile operators all over the State of West Bengal.

6. The petitioner No. 3 is the Chief Executive Officer of the company and is working for gain at its corporate office at Gurgaon. The petitioner No. 3 joined the company on 2nd July, 2012 and is devoid of any criminal antecedent. The petitioner No. 3, being the Chief Executive Officer of the company, is constantly engaged in visiting various circles all over India for operational purposes and has to attend meetings with all external and internal stakeholders for keeping up their commitments for ensuring hundred per cent network coverage for the mobile operators all over India.

7. The petitioner No. 4 is the Chief Operating Officer of the company and is responsible to ensure 100 per cent uptime of all passive infrastructure services provided by the company to the different mobile operators. The petitioner No. 4 joined the company only on 1stJuly, 2013 and is devoid of any criminal antecedent.

8. The