HC raps BOI for not saving 120 forged cheques
The court was upset with the bank as it failed to produce the cheques that should have been kept as a record in its designated godowns.
Mumbai: The Bombay high court has lambasted the Bank of India (BoI) for not retaining cheques that were cleared by it of a public trust.
The trust had alleged that 120 cheques cleared by the bank had forged signatures by an employee who had siphoned off Rs 1.95 crore using the cheques.
The court was upset with the bank as it failed to produce the cheques that should have been kept as a record in its designated godowns.
A bench of justice Gautam Patel was hearing a chamber summons filed by the Bank of India (BoI) seeking to amend its statement in the suit filed by the trustees of Centre for the Study of Social Change (CSSC) as they were able to trace only a few of the 120 cheques that had been used to withdraw the amount from the trust’s account prior to 2009.
The amendment to the written statement sought by the bank said, “We have searched the same from the banks godown where old records were kept. After thorough search, we could trace only some of the cheques.”
While rejecting the chamber summons, Justice Patel said the bank did not folllow “due diligence” while clearing the cheques.