New Delhi, June 2 -- Banks cannot start criminal prosecution proceedings against a borrower after voluntarily entering into and fully acting upon a settlement of the dispute, the Supreme Court ruled, holding that such conduct demonstrates a lack of good faith and amounts to an abuse of the process of law. A bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan quashed a CBI chargesheet and criminal proceedings initiated against a company and its directors years after a nationalised bank settled its dues through an arrangement approved by the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT). The court cautioned that permitting such prosecutions would undermine confidence in negotiated settlements and discourage resolution of commercial disputes. "If such a conduct i...