Creditor – Can maintain civil and criminal proceeding

There cannot be any doubt or dispute that a creditor can maintain a civil and criminal proceeding at the same time. Both the proceedings, thus, can run parallel. The fact required to be proved for obtaining a decree in the civil suit and a judgment of conviction in the criminal proceedings may be overlapping but the standard of proof in a criminal case vis-à-vis a civil suit, indisputably is different. Whereas in a criminal case the prosecution is bound to prove the commission of the offence on the part of the accused beyond any reasonable doubt; in a civil suit ‘preponderance of probability’ would serve the purpose of obtaining a decree. Any finding in a criminal proceeding by no stretch of imagination would be binding in a civil proceeding. Jamil v. State of U.P., 2016 (96) ACC 623.