V. Bharathidasan, J.

1. This revision has been filed against order passed by the learned Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, (EOI), Egmore, Chennai, dismissing the petition filed by the revision petitioners under Section 245(2) of Cr.P.C. to discharge them from the criminal case.

2. The fact of the case, in brief, is as follows:-

(i) The Revision Petitioners are accused 2,3 and 4 in E.O.C.C. No. 14 of 2001, pending on the file of the learned Chief Additional Metropolitan Magistrate, (EOI), Egmore, Chennai. Earlier, the respondent/Reserve Bank of India, filed a complaint, against the petitioners and other 12 persons, under Section 200 Cr.P.C. for the offences under Sections 45QA, 58B(4 AAA) and 58E(1) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 (Hereinafter called as Act). The above said complaint was filed by the respondent on the ground that the first accused in this case is a non banking finance company, originally incorporated and registered in the year 1982 as Krest Development and Leasing Private Ltd. subsequently changed to McDowell Krest Finance Ltd. with effect from 04.06.1993. Thereafter, the present 1st accused company, namely, Krest Finlease Limited was incorporated with effect from 11.02.1998.

(ii) So far as the petitioners are concerned, they were Directors of the first accused company upto 21.10.1998 and other accused also Directors of the first accused company and who are all in-charge and responsible of the first accused company for the conduct and business of the company. The first accused company collected deposits from various persons and failed to repay the deposit amount with interest. Hence, number of complaints were filed by the depositors before the Company Law Board under Section 45QA(2) of the Reserve Bank of India Act for non payment of deposit amount. Considering the complaints made by the depositors, the Company Law Board (CLB), passed several orders dated 28.04.1998, 22.06.1998, 23.07.1998, 05.10.1998 and 01.12.1998, directed the first accused company, its Directors and concerned officers to repay the deposit together with rate of interest calculated up to the date of payment in accordance with the terms of deposit within a stipulated time. But, the above orders were not complied with by the Directors of the first accused company. Since the orders passed by the Company Law Board was not obeyed by the first accused company as well as the Directors, the Reserve Bank of India has filed the above complaint for non compliance of above said orders, for the offence under Sections 45QA, 58B(4 AAA) and Section 58E(1) of the Reserve Bank of India Act,1934. Earlier, the Court below taken cognizance of the offence and issued process to all the accused.

(iii) Thereafter, the petitioners herein filed an application under Section 245(2) Cr.P.C. to discharge them from the above criminal case, contending that, all the petitioners herein resigned from the post of Directors of the first accused company on 21.10.1998 and Form 32 has also been filed before the concerned Registrar of Companies as per the requirements of the Companies Act. Now, the first accused company functioning under new management, namely, one Roydu Group. The Company Law Board issued various directions based on the complaint given by the depositors to pay the deposit amount and directed the persons who were responsible for the affairs of the company, namely, A6 to A8. The above accused only filed an undertaking before the Company Law Board to comply with the orders, and the order dated 01.12.1998 passed by the Company Law Board, based on the undertaken given by A6 to A8. Now, the criminal prosecution has been launched by the Reserve Bank of India against the company as well as all those persons irrespective of the fact that whether the directors were in-charge the company and were responsible for the conduct of the business of the company, which is mandatory requirement under Section 58-C of Reserve Bank of India Act.

(iv) All the petitioners ha