THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE ABHINAND KUMAR SHAVILI AND THE HON’BLE SMT. JUSTICE TIRUMALA DEVI EADA CITY CIVIL COURT APPEAL No.162 OF 2009 JUDGMENT: (Per Hon’ble Smt. Justice Tirumala Devi Eada)

This is an appeal filed by the appellant being aggrieved by the judgment and decree, dated 26.12.2005, passed in O.S.No.78 of 2001 by the learned XIV Additional Chief Judge, City Civil Court at Hyderabad (for short “the trial Court”).

2. The appellant herein is the defendant and the respondent herein is plaintiff before the trial Court and the parties herein are referred to as they were arrayed in the suit before the trial Court for the sake of convenience and clarity.

3. The brief facts of the case before the trial Court are that the plaintiff bank appointed the defendant as a Probationary Officer and that the defendant joined the service on 22.12.1983. He worked as Assistant Manager (Accounts) of Chandrayanagutta Branch, Hyderabad from 01.09.1997 to 12.10.1998 and thereafter, he was posted as System Administrator in the plaintiff branch from 13.10.1998 till 17.08.2000 i.e. the date of his suspension. It is the case of the plaintiff that on 16.08.2000 they could notice that the defendant while working as Assistant Manager (Accounts) at Chandrayanagutta branch, forged the signature of Sri APJ Abdul Kalam, a learned Scientist and Scientific adviser to Prime Minister of India and the Branch Manager of the plaintiff bank alerted and verified the personal accounts of the defendant vide his current account Nos.01090094617 opened on 12.10.1998 and 01090007979 opened on 13.10.1998. The bank manager found that there were no abnormal transactions till April, 1999 but from May, 1999 onwards, there were very high value credit clearances noted through the said accounts. Further, they could detect that the said clearances related to employees provident fund. It is their case that the various institutions remit employees funds, corporate tax, income tax, ESI contribution, etc., by means of local cheques drawn on their respective banks along with related challans in quadruplicate. That these cheques will be presented in the outward clearing system of a computerized branch by giving the credit to intermediate accounts on systems suspense accounts and these amounts cannot be credited directly until the draft is written. The details of the clearing credits diverted by the defendant from the system suspense account to his above stated current accounts is to a tune of Rs.52,79,452.05 paise and that the defendant has withdrawn the amounts from the current account to a tune of Rs.26,50,000/- in cash and the remaining amount through transfer. When the fraud was reported to the Assistant General Manager of their division and when the defendant was questioned by the authorities on 17.08.2000, the defendant admitted the fraud and assured to repay the amount by 11.30 AM on 19.08.2000. He failed to do so and thus, the Branch Manager lodged a complaint with Station House Officer, Abids Police Station vide complaint No.191 of 2000 and during the course of investigation they have seized various articles from the possession of the defendant. It is their case that the defendant has repaid the housing loan with the funds misappropriated and took back the title deeds of his flat situated at Ameerpet and the plaintiff bank has to pay the misappropriated funds to beneficiaries. Thus, the plaintiff filed the present suit.

4. The defendant filed a written statement denying the material averments but has admitted that he joined service in the plaintiff bank and worked in different capacities in different branches. But for the said fact he denied all the averments in the plaint and further he pleaded that he was working only as a System Administrator and that he has no knowledge about the remittances made by various institutions towards employees’ provident funds etc., and thus, he never had an access to the remittances to go for manipulation and that the allegations are false. He