New Delhi, April 7 -- The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on Uttar Pradesh Police for its "absurd" practice of converting civil disputes into criminal cases.

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan termed such a practice wrong, absurd and contrary to the guidelines issued by the top court in an earlier judgement.

It clarified that the act of taking and not returning money is not a criminal offence.

"This is something strange which is happening day in and day out in UP. A case of merely giving money and not returning of that money is not a criminal offence. This is absolutely no case, there's no criminal case at all," said CJI Khanna.

Calling into question the state authorities' irr...