The Supreme Court on Monday criticised the Uttar Pradesh Police for filing criminal charges in civil cases “day in and day out”, reported Live Law.

“This is wrong!” said the court. “What is happening in Uttar Pradesh? Every day civil suits are being converted to criminal cases. That is not correct! That is breakdown of rule of law completely.”

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan was hearing an appeal to dismiss the first information report registered against two petitioners. They have been charged with criminal breach of trust, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy.

They have also been booked under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act for allegedly failing to return money to the complainants in the matter. The section deals with the dishonour of a cheque for insufficient funds.

Noting that the case was relating to a civil dispute, the chief justice criticised the Uttar Pradesh Police for the “trend of wrongfully converting disputes of civil nature into criminal cases”, reported Live Law.

The bench also said that the order taking cognisance of the matter, the summoning order as well as the chargesheet filed were contrary to the top court’s direction in the Sharif Ahmed vs State of Uttar Pradesh case, according to The Indian Express.

In its judgement in the Sharif Ahmed case in May, the Supreme Court had said that investigating officers must ensure that the chargesheet contains clear and complete entries of all columns. This would help courts in clearly understanding what crime has been allegedly committed by which person accused in the matter and what is the material evidence available on the file.

“In view of this, we would require the director general of police of Uttar Pradesh as well as the station house officer/investigation officer of the police station to file an affidavit showing compliance with the directions given in the judgement,” the bench was quoted as saying on Monday.

It added: “It’s absurd, merely not giving money cannot be turned into an offence...I will ask the investigating officer to come to the witness box...let the investigating officer stand in the witness box and make out the case of crime...we will direct it, let him learn his lesson, this is not the way you file chargesheets.”

The court will hear the matter next on May 5.

The prosecution had told the court that the petitioners’ father had borrowed Rs 25 lakh from a person in their presence, reported The Indian Express.

The father allegedly refused to return the money at the promised time. He also allegedly threatened the complainant when the latter demanded the money back, saying he had his sons burn him alive.