New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday voiced serious concerns about the increasing and widespread practice of transforming civil disputes into criminal cases, calling for strong measures to curb this trend.

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The observations came from a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar while hearing a plea seeking to quash criminal charges in a case over allegations of misconduct during the transfer of a property sale deed.

"This is again one of those cases where a civil case is converted into a criminal one and this has to be checked very strongly. Please advise your clients otherwise your case may not become barred by limitation also. This is happening in quite some states and it is wrong. It's a wrong practice… In fact, it is not happening, it is rampant in some states," observed the CJI.

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The bench was hearing a plea filed by petitioner Rikhab Birani who approached the apex court challenging an Allahabad High Court order that refused to quash the charges under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The high court took a prima facie view that "at this stage, it cannot be said that no offence" was made out against the applicants.

During the proceedings, a counsel acknowledged that no civil suit was filed regarding the dispute and instead, a criminal case was initiated based on the claim that the petitioner had moved residences, allegedly making it difficult to pursue civil remedies.

The bench observed the troubling trend was not limited to isolated incidents but was "rampant in some states."

The CJI said such wrongful conversions distorted the purpose of criminal law while overburdening the judiciary with cases that ideally should be dealt with through civil litigation.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)