'Very sad' courts mix up criminal breach of trust & cheating, says SO

The Supreme Court on Friday said it was "very sad" that courts have not been able to understand the fine distinction between criminal breach of trust and cheating despite the penal law being in force for over 162 years.

Unfortunately, become a common practice for police to routinely and mechanically proceed to register an FIR for both the offences on a mere allegation of some dishonesty or fraud, without any proper application of mind, it said.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said it was high time that police officials across the country were imparted proper training in law so as to understand the fine distinction between the offences of cheating and criminal breach of trust.

"Both offences are independent and distinct. The two offences cannot co-exist simultaneously in the same set of facts. They are antithetical to each other," the bench said.