NDLI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limted Vs. Suryanarayanan and Anr.

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Code of Criminal Procedure 1973
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Act(s) Referred	Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974)
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Disposed Off
Headnote	Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973: ss.451, 452 – Disposalof property – Theft of copper material from the godown of TelecomDepartment – Accused allegedly sold the material to first respondent– Seizure of copper lead alloy moulds from first respondent andinterim custody of same handed over by Magistrate to appellantunder s.451 – Criminal case registered under ss.457, 381, 461,462, 411 r/w s.34 IPC – Acquittal of all the accused – Firstrespondent sought release of the alloy moulds under s.452 –Application for release of material filed by first respondent waskept at abeyance – Dismissal of State’s appeal against acquittal –Magistrate declined custody of seized material to first respondent,rather relegated him to prove his title before civil court – Sessionscourt affirmed the finding of Magistrate – High Court held thatappellant had not raised a claim over the seized material and thatsince possession of seized material was taken over from firstrespondent, it should be restored to first respondent and that thoughinterim custody was handed over to appellant it did not assert anyright over the property nor did it deny the right or title of firstrespondent, therefore, there was no reason to relegate firstrespondent to civil court – On appeal, held: Where a claim is madebefore the court that the property does not belong to the personfrom whom it was seized, s.452 does not mandate that its custodyshould be handed over to the person from whose possession it wasseized, overriding the claim of genuine title which is asserted onbehalf of a third party – Prima facie, at this stage, first respondentcould not indicate any basis for the claim of title in acquisition ofthe goods or payment which was made for acquiring them –Therefore, it was appropriate for him to agitate such a claim beforethe competent civil forum – In the absence of such an adjudication,the custody of the goods should remain with the appellant – High Court was in error in directing return of the goods to the firstrespondent – The goods were made over to the appellant as farback as in 1992 – No justification to require the appellant to holdthese goods in its custody indefinitely thereby occupying valuablespace and leaving productive resources unutilised – The appellantis directed to preserve a sample of the material in question in case itis required for adjudication before the competent civil court – Subjectto this, permission granted to the appellant to sell the goods byauction and to maintain an account of the money which has beenrealised from the sale.Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973: s.452 – Relevantconsideration – A claim of title to the goods which have been seizedis a relevant consideration while passing an order under s.452 –Where there are conflicting claims of entitlement to the property, theMagistrate may deal with them or, where it is found that the rivalclaims need to be resolved after an evidentiary trial, relegate theconflicting claimants to prove their rights and entitlements before acompetent court.
Judge	Hon'ble Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud
Neutral Citation	2018 INSC 1197
Petitioner	Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limted
Respondent	Suryanarayanan And Anr.
SCR	[2018] 13 S.C.R. 950
Judgement Date	2018-12-13
Case Number	170

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Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limted Vs. Suryanarayanan and Anr.

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