A bank manager has a duty to verify the revenue record before sanctioning a loan, and failure to do so may lead to charges of conspiracy and forgery if the loan is obtained fraudulently.

R.L. Anand, J. –

This is a Criminal Revision which has been directed against the order dated 11.3.1998 passed by the court of Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Mansa who decided to frame charges under sections 420/467/468 and 471 read with Section 120-F of the Indian Penal Code, against the petitioner Shri Rajinder Kumar Mittal and others.

2. The brief facts of the case are that Shri Gurcharan Singh son of Santu Singh and Kartar Singh son of Mal Singh residents of village Bareh applied for a tractor loan to the bank. They produced copy of the Jamabandi and khasra girdwaries from Patwari Gurbinder Singh. The khasra numbers of land belong to some other persons but the patwari in connivance with Gurcharan Singh and Kartar Singh prepared fake documents and supplied the same to accused Gurcharan Singh and Kartar Singh so as to facilitate them to obtain tractor loan from the bank. The petitioner was manager of the relevant bank at the time of the advancement and sanction of the loan. With the above allegations the petitioner was equally guilty with his co-accused in the advancement of the loan. The challan was presented before the Trial Magistrate. The learned Magistrate, for the reasons stated herein decided to frame the charges against the petitioner and his co-accused vide impugned order dated 11.3.1998 under the sections already indicated above and aggrieved by the said order the present revision which was barred by limitation but vide my order dated 27.10.1998 the limitation was condoned and the counsel for the petitioner Shri H.S. Mann, was directed to address preliminary arguments with regard to the alleged illegality committed by the Magistrate in framing charges against his client. Before I proceed further, I would like to incorporate reasons advanced by the learned Magistrate in deciding that the petitioner should also be charge-sheeted under sections 420, 367, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. "I have considered the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the accused and perused the evidence under Section 161 Criminal Procedure Code and the FIR on the record. As per the allegations in the F.I.R. Sh. Rajinder Kumar manager sanctioned the loan without verifying the record of the Patwari and the land mentioned in the jamabandi belongs to the some other person which had been mortgaged with the bank. Similarly as per the statement of Surinder Kumar Manager, State Bank of Patiala Branch stated in his statement that the loan case has been passed by verifying the revenue record and there was no field officer. It is the duty of the manager to check the record personality before sanctioning the loan. The allegations in the F.I.R. are sufficient to frame a charge against the accused Manager Rajinder Kumar under Sections 471 and 120-B Indian Penal Code. He used those forged documents with the conspiracy of Patwari Gurbinder Singh, Gurcharan Singh loaner, Kartar Singh loaner, Rakesh Kumar clerk, Tehsil Budhlada and sanctioned loan of Rs. 115200/-. Counsel for Rakesh Kumar Clerk submitted that allegations against Rakesh Kumar were that he made a report without checking the Tehsil record and reported that property is free of all encumbrances. The duty of the clerk was to check the index register and on the index register only the names of the persons who transferred their land to subsequent transferee are to be entered but there was no such entry in the register and he made the report bonafide. At this stage no offence is made out against accused as no record of index register is on the file. I have considered these arguments of learned counsel for the accused and perused the FIR and statement under Section 161 Criminal Procedure Code of various witnesses. As per the allegations in the FIR that Rakesh Kumar Clerk, Tehsil Budhlada has given a certificate that the property is free from encumbrances without verifying the Tehsil record, whenever the land has already been mortgaged against a loan from the Bank and he with t