STATE BANK OK INDIA Vs. RAJENDRA KUMAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is brought from the order of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh dated 5th April, 1963 in Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 135 of 1962 under Section 520 of the Code of Criminal Procedure directing the return of 21 currency notes of the denomination of Rs. 1,000 each to respondents Rajendra Kumar Singh and Virendra Singh.

(2.) The currency notes of the total value of Rs. 21,000 were seized by the Madhya Pradesh Police from the Beawar Branch of the State Bank of India in the course of an investigation of a case under Sections 420, 406 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code registered in P. S. Thuko Ganj, Indore City as Crime No. l13 of 1961 against Kishan Gopal, the third respondent. It appears that the third respondent had come into possession of a sum of Rs, l,50,000 in Government currency notes by cheating the first and second respondents. The currency notes seized from the appellant were said to be part of the property obtained by Kishan Gopal by the commission of the said offence. The case of the appellant was that it had come into possession of the said currency notes in the usual course of its business party through the Bank of Rajasthan Limited and partly through the Mahalaxmi Mills Company Limited without any knowledge that the said currency notes had been the subject matter of an offence. In the proceedings that followed on the investigation of the said case, the accused persons including the third respondent were acquitted by the Court of the Fourth Additional Sessions Judge, Indore in Sessions Case No. 3 of 1962 by an order made on 24th April, 1962. In the course of the trial, the appellant made an application under Section 517 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure asking for delivery of the aforesaid 21 currency notes to it on the ground that the said currency notes had been seized by the police from the appellant and that the appellant was an innocent third party who had received the said notes without any knowledge or suspicion of their having been involved in the commission of an offence. By his order dated 24th April, 1962 the 4th Additional Sessions Judge, Indore allowed the application and directed that the currency notes should be returned to the appellant. Subsequently, an appeal was filed to the High Court by the State of Madhya Pradesh being Criminal Appeal No. 205 of 1962. The appeal was allowed and the High Court set aside the order of acquittal of the third respondent and convicted him under Sections 420, 406 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo imprisonment. The first respondent, Rajendra Kumar Singh, made an application to the High Court asking for delivery of the currency notes as they belonged to him and the second respondent and as they had been deprived of the said property by the third respondent by the commission of the aforesaid offence. The application was allowed by the High Court by its order dated 5th April, 1963 and the currency notes were ordered to be handed over to the first and the second respondents. The relevant portion of the order of the High Court reads as follows:

(3.) Section 517 of the Code of Criminal Procedure states: