Allahabad High Court
Sharad Bhartia vs Union Of India And 3 Others on 21 May, 2024
Author: Siddharth
Bench: Siddharth
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Neutral Citation No. - 2024:AHC:91238-DB
Court No. - 46
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 7534 of 2024
Petitioner :- Sharad Bhartia
Respondent :- Union Of India And 3 Others
Counsel for Petitioner :- Raghav Dev Garg,Sr. Advocate
Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,Maneesh Mehrotra,Manu Vardhana,Sanjay Kumar Yadav
Hon'ble Siddharth,J.
Hon'ble Surendra Singh-I,J.
Heard Sri Anurag Khanna, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri Raghav Dev Garg, learned counsel for the petitioner; Sri Gyan Prakash, Deputy Solicitor General of India, High Court Allahabad assisted by Sri Sanjay Kumar Yadav appearing on behalf of C.B.I., Sri Manu Vardhana appearing on behalf of Union of India and Bureau of Immigration for respondent nos. 1 and 2, Sri J.S. Pandey, Advocate holding brief of Sri Manish Mehrotra for respondent no. 4.
This writ petition has been filed praying for following reliefs :-
"(i) issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari or any other writ thereby calling for records and seeking details of the LOCs issued and pending against the petitioner;
(ii) issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari or any other writ, calling for records and quashing the lookout circular (s) issued and pending against the petitioner; and /or
(iii) issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of a mandamus thereby allowing the petitioner travel overseas and issue appropriate directions to respondent no. 2; and / or
(iv) issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus or any other writ restraining the respondents from creating hindrance in the overseas travels of the petitioner on account of the existence of the impugned LOC(s).
(v) pass any such other writ or order (s) as it may deem fit and proper in the interest of justice.
(vi) award the cost of the petition to the petitioner."
Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner submits that the bank-respondent no. 4 has no legal authority to issue lookout circular (LOC) against petitioner.
He has relied upon the judgment of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay passed in Writ Petition NO. 710 of 2020 and has submitted that the office memorandum on the basis of which the lookout circular was issued by the bank against the petitioner have already been quashed by the following order in paragraph nos. 195 and 196 are quoted hereinbelow :-
"195. Consequently:
(a) Clause 8(b) (xv) of the 2010 amended OM (equivalent to Clause 6(B) (xv) of the 2021 consolidated OM) which includes the Chairmen, Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers of all public sector banks as authorities who may request the issuance of a Look Out Circular is quashed.
(b) All the LOCS are quashed and set aside.
(c) The Bureau of Immigration will ignore and not act upon any LOCS issued by any public sector banks. All databases will be updated accordingly. We do not expect the public sector banks to do this, and therefore direct the Bureau of Immigration or MHA to do the needful.
(d) All authorities at all ports of embarkation will be informed and apprised accordingly.
196. Further:
(a) This order will not and does not affect any existing restraint order issued by a competent authority, court, tribunal or investigative or enforcement agency, or in enforcement of any order of a court. Where, for instance, the DRT or a criminal court has issued a restraint order (even if this is at the instance of public sector bank), that order will continue to operate. The invalidation of the present LOCs cannot and will not affect such orders.
(b) The banks are also always at liberty to apply to any court or tribunal under applicable law for an order against an individual borrower, guarantor or person indebted restraining such person from travelling overseas.
(c) In addition, the banks may invoke powers under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, where applicable, notwithstanding this judgment in regard to any LOC.
(d) This judgment cannot and will not prevent the Union of India from framing an appropriate law and establishing a procedure consistent with Article 21 of the Constitution of India."
Learned Senior Counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I), Sri Gyan Prakash, has given statement before the court that no lookout circular has been issued by the Central Bureau of Investigation against the petitioner.
He has also placed before his instruction received by him which is quoted hereinbelow :-
"In this regard, it is informed that no LOC has been issued against accused Shard Bhartia in case RC- 0532020E0005- CBI/SCB/Lucknow. Sh. Shard Bhartia along with other accused (1) M/s Olympic Oil Ihdustries Ltd. (2) Nipun Verma (3) Sujay Desai has been chargesheeted in Case RC- 0532020E0005- CBI/SCBILucknow Us 120-B, 420, 467, 468 and 471 IPC in the Court of Special Judicial Magistrate-1, CBL Lucknow vide Chargesheet No. 08/2021 dated 25.11,2021. The Case is under further investigation.
Regards,
HOB, CBI, SCB, LKO"
The office memorandum quashed by the Bombay High Court have been issued by the Government of India Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Finance empowering the public sector banks to issue request for issuing of lookout circulars.
The lookout circular is admitted to have been issued by the bank-respondent no. 4 only.
In view of the above consideration, it appears that the lookout circular issued by the bank shall not have any affect on the petitioner. However, the bank is at liberty to take measures provided under clause 196 of the judgment of Bombay High Court to secure its interest, if so required.
The writ petition is partly allowed.
Order Date :- 21.5.2024
Rohit
(Surendra Singh-I,J.) (Siddharth,J.)
