Police, courts unaware of distinction between cheating and criminal breach of trust:

Supreme Court It is high time that police officers across the country are imparted proper training so as to understand the fine distinction between the offences. The Apex Court on Friday lamented the fact that even after 162 years of the Indian Penal Code, being in force, the police and the courts have not been able to understand the fine distinction between the offences of criminal breach of trust and cheating [Delhi Race (1940) Limited and Others v. State of Uttar Pradesh].

Highlighting the sad state of affairs where police officers are mechanically registering first information reports (FIRs) for both offences on a mere allegation of dishonesty or fraud, a Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra called for training of police officers across the country.

"it has become a common practice for the police officers to routinely and mechanically proceed to register an FIR for both the offences i.e. criminal breach of trust and cheating on a mere allegation of some dishonesty or fraud, without any proper application of mind. It is high time that the police officers across the country are imparted proper training in law so as to understand the fine distinction between the offence of cheating viz-a-viz criminal breach of trust. Both offences are independent and distinct. The two offences cannot coexist simultaneously in the same set of facts. They are antithetical to each other,"