Kerala   

Offence under BRA non-cognizable: court

Kochi: In a landmark judgment, a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has held that the police cannot register any crime for the offence under Section 36 AD of the Banking Regulation Act.

The Bench comprising Justice K. Balakrishnan Nair and Justice T.R. Ramachandran Nair held that since the maximum punishment was only six months imprisonment for the offence, it was a non-cognizable one. As long as the offence under Section 36 AD was a non-cognizable offence, the police could not register any crime for the commission of such an offence on the information given by a bank or investigate the same. The police could not take preventive action in the matter of such offence as well.

Section 36 AD prescribes punishment for certain activities in the banking companies. The section says that no person shall obstruct any person from lawfully entering or leaving any office or place of business of a banking company or from carrying on any business there. The section prohibits demonstrations that are violent and prevent transaction of normal business by the banks or actions calculated to undermine the confidence of the depositors. The section further says that whoever controverts the provision shall be punishable with imprisonment for terms up to six months or a fine of Rs. 1,000.

The court held that if anybody was holding demonstration in violation of any provisions of law or infringing any rights, it could move a competent civil court and obtain an order of injunction against them. This court could not confer on the police the jurisdiction to deal with such matters in the absence of any statutory provisions authorising them to do the same.

The petition was filed by ING Vysya Bank seeking a directive to the police to provide police protection for their branches in the State. The Bank filed the petition as they feared that a few nurses, who alleged that they were not given placement in the U.S. as promised by the placement agency and the bank, would demonstrate before the bank branches. The Bank also sought a directive to the police to take steps to restrain the nurses from agitating within 100 metres of the premises of the bank branches.

Dismissing the petition, the Bench said no statute had been brought to its notice prohibiting demonstrations within 100 metres of a scheduled bank and entrustment of its enforcement to the police.

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