W.P. Nos. 2367, 2415 & 2366 of 2024 — High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Civil Appellate Jurisdiction (Amit Borkar, J.) — Decided 27 November 2025 — Renuka Lawns v. The Seva Vikas Cooperative Bank Ltd. & Anr. — The petitioner challenged the order dated 20 August 2019 of the Deputy Registrar, Cooperative Societies rejecting his application under Section 340 CrPC read with Section 195 IPC for an inquiry and filing of a complaint before the Judicial Magistrate First Class against the Bank's Manager, on the plea that the Bank had made false sworn statements in its Section 101 Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960 recovery proceedings and later sought amendment to substitute the amounts. HELD: (i) an error in calculation or a mistake in figures does not automatically create a criminal offence; material showing intention to deceive is required and none was placed; (ii) the circumstance that the Bank corrected the figures only after the discrepancy was pointed out does not establish intention to give false evidence — Section 340 CrPC requires material of deliberate falsehood affecting the justice process; (iii) applying the Constitution Bench ruling in Iqbal Singh Marwah v. Meenakshi Marwah (2005) 4 SCC 370, the Section 340 power is not triggered merely because a statement later turns out incorrect; a direction to prosecute is reserved for situations where intentional falsehood strikes at the purity of the judicial process, and courts ordinarily act with restraint; (iv) the amendment introduced no new claim and no additional liability, the nature of the dispute was unchanged, no prejudice was caused, the mortgaged property was surrendered in 2020, recovery proceedings had moved forward, and there is a statutory bar on the Registrar conducting a CrPC inquiry. On the test of expediency in the interest of justice, Section 340 action was not justified and the Registrar acted correctly. DISPOSITION: writ petitions dismissed; impugned order dated 20 August 2019 upheld; no order as to costs.
