B H SHYAMU Vs. BHOOPALAM K RAJASHEKHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner in Criminal Revision Petition No. 276/67 is the complainant and Petitioners in Criminal Revision Petition No. 372 of 1967 are accused in C. C. No. 8194 of 1966 on the file of the Additional First Class Magiatrate, Bangalore, who will be hereinafter referred to as the complainant and accused in the case.

(2.) THE complainant filed a complaint against the accused for the offence punishable under Section 406 of the Penal Code. The learned Magistrate took cognisance of the complaint. The allegations in the complaint are that the prints and the publicity material of the picture 'BEES SAAL BAAD" relating to Madras City, Tamilnadu and Malabar were entrusted to the accused with a direction to hold the same on behalf of the complainant as Benamidars and to exploit the right of distribution in the name of the complainant and make payments to him as and when they realised the amounts from exploitation. The accused went on following the directions upto 1st April 1964 and thereafter contrary to the directions not only tried to assert the rights of ownership in themselves but also misappropriated the funds with criminal intention. Further, according to the complainant the accused persons realised huge amounts of money in the months of June, July, August and September, 1964, and that they failed to account for cash that was realised and also failed to give the percentage of profits as agreed to between them by an oral agreement.

(3.) ON 19.8.1967, the accused moved the Magistrate under Section 516 -A of the Criminal Procedure Code, for delivery of the prints and the publicity materials of the film "BEES SAAL BAAD" to them immediately as they were legally entitled to retain them in their custody pending disposal of the case. The learned Magistrate after hearing the matter in detail came to the conclusion that at that stage the Criminal Courts could not either withhold or refuse to hand over the custody of the three prints and publicity materials of "BEES SAAL BAAD" to the accused nor that he could put a condition that even after these prints and publicity materials were handed over to the accused pending disposal of the complaint, they should neither distribute nor exhibit the film. Therefore, he passed an order as follows: -