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Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited v. Suryanarayanan & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 1197Decided 13 Dec 2018
Criminal Appeal No. 170 of 2009
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

In 1992, a theft of over 10,000 kg of copper wire and lead sleeves was reported from a Telecom Department godown in Ernakulam; the stolen material was allegedly sold to the first respondent, a metals trader, from whom police seized about 5,060 kg of copper-lead alloy. The seized goods were handed to BSNL (the successor to the Telecom Department) for interim custody pending trial. All the accused were eventually acquitted, after which the trader applied for release of the goods to himself. A Magistrate and the Sessions Court both declined to hand the goods to him, holding he must prove his title in a civil court, but the Kerala High Court reversed this and ordered the goods returned to him, relying on a Supreme Court precedent (N. Madhavan) that seized property should generally go back to the person from whom it was seized.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that an order on disposal of seized property under Section 452 CrPC is a judicial function requiring the court to consider genuine competing claims of title, not just mechanically return goods to whoever they were seized from: the Madhavan precedent applied only because there was no dispute there about the accused's ownership of the weapon seized from him. Here, by contrast, the trader's claim to own the copper material was seriously disputed: he produced only some invoices and no proof of actual purchase of the specific seized goods, while BSNL had shown the material was of a type not normally available in the open market and matched what was reported stolen from its godown. The Court held the High Court erred in ordering return to the trader, and that he must instead establish his title in a civil suit. Given that 26 years had passed since seizure, the Court permitted BSNL to auction the goods (preserving a sample for any future civil trial) and to hold the sale proceeds subject to the outcome of any civil suit the trader might file.

Lesson Learnt

Simply having custody of seized property does not confer ownership: a person claiming seized goods must prove genuine title, and where that title is disputed, courts will send the claim to a civil court rather than hand back the property automatically, especially after an acquittal.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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