For wrongfully encashing a cheque of Rs 2,242.50 in 1994, a man has been made to cough up Rs 55 lakh while he endeavours to get off the hook.
The Supreme Court has agreed to consider dropping criminal charges against Mahendra Kumar Sharda but not before he conceded to pay Rs 5 lakh as penalty for using more than two decades of judicial processes, apart from a payment of Rs 50 lakh in settlement to the complainant.
Sharda, according to charges framed against him, was working till May 1992 as a manager with complainant Hari Om Maheshwari, who was a member of the Delhi Stock Exchange.
Maheshwari got an FIR lodged in 1997 at a police station in Delhi, complaining that a cheque of commission and brokerage amounting to Rs 2,242.50 somehow reached the hands of Sharda, who then fraudulently opened a bank account in the name of Maheshwari’s firm and encashed it.
Sharda contested the charges of cheating and forgery initially but later proceeded to settle it. But the Delhi High Court, by an order in July this year, refused to quash the charges after noting the charges are grave in nature.
This compelled Sharda to move the Supreme Court in appeal where he pointed out that he has settled the matter with the complainant by offering Rs 50 lakh in lieu of the cheque of Rs 2,242.50 last year.
At this, the bench headed by Justice Sanjay K Kaul questioned Sharda’s counsel as to why it took more than two decades to try and settle the case while the judicial processes were being used.
“We put to the counsel that more than two decades of judicial time has been utilised and only now the settlement is sought to be arrived at,” recorded the court order, adding the only explanation by the lawyer was that since it was in the nature of a private dispute between two individuals, the case can be put to rest after the settlement.
The bench then held that it is not disinclined to do so but Sharda “must pay costs for having consumed so much judicial time”.
Sharda subsequently agreed to pay another Rs 5 lakh for using the judicial time and processes, following which the court sought a response from the Delhi Police on quashing the FIR. Complainant Maheshwari was present in the court through video-conferencing and joined in the request for dropping all criminal charges.
On September 15, the bench will hear the Delhi Police and will then decide Sharda’s fate.
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