Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has approved a proposal to constitute two designated courts of the additional sessions judge in each judicial district of Delhi to deal with matters of unregulated deposit schemes.

This has been done with the concurrence of the chief justice of the Delhi High Court under section 8 of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 passed by the Parliament of India. The same has been sent to the Lieutenant Governor (LG) for issuance of a notification in this regard.

The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 is an Act to provide for a comprehensive mechanism to ban unregulated deposit schemes, other than deposits taken in the ordinary course of business, and to protect the interest of depositors and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. This has been done to protect the interest of the gullible depositors.

According to the Act, “deposit” means an amount of money received by way of an advance or loan or in any other form, by any deposit taker with a promise to return whether after a specified period or otherwise, either in cash or in kind or the form of a specified service, with or without any benefit in the form of interest, bonus, profit or in any other form.

But such deposit does not include amounts received as loan from a scheduled bank or a cooperative bank or any other banking company as defined in section 5 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949; amounts received as loan or financial assistance from public financial institutions or any non-banking financial company registered with the Reserve Bank of India or any Regional Financial Institutions or insurance companies; amounts received by an individual by way of loan from his relatives or amounts received by any firm by way of loan from the relatives of any of its partners; amounts received as credit by a buyer from a seller on the sale of any property, etc.

From the date of commencement of the Act, no deposit taker shall, directly or indirectly, promote, operate, issue any advertisement soliciting participation or enrolment in or accept deposits in pursuance of an Unregulated Deposit Scheme.

As per the Act, no court other than the designated court shall have jurisdiction in respect of any matter to which the provisions of this Act apply. Also, when trying an offence under this Act, the designated court may try an offence, other than an offence under this Act, with which the accused may, under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, be charged at the same trial.