State the law relating to the procedure by police upon seizure of property.

Question: State the law relating to the procedure by police upon seizure of property.

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Answer

Seizure of property is an encumbrance, namely a restriction that is imposed not by your own will but under the law. Section 457 in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 lays down the procedure to be followed by police upon seizure of property.

Sub-section (1) provides that whenever the seizure of property by any police officer is reported to a Magistrate under the provisions of this Code, and such property is not produced before a Criminal Court during an inquiry or trial, the Magistrate may make such order as he thinks fit respecting the disposal of such property or the delivery of such property to the person entitled to the possession thereof, or if such person cannot be ascertained, respecting the custody and production of such property.

Moreover, sub-section (2) provides that if the person so entitled is known, the Magistrate may order the property to be delivered to him on such conditions (if any) as the Magistrate thinks fit, and if such person is unknown, the Magistrate may detain it and shall, in such case, issue a proclamation specifying the articles of which such property consists, and requiring any person who may have a claim thereto, to appear before him and establish his claim within six months from the date of such proclamation.

Under this section, what the Magistrate has to consider is who is entitled to the possession of property that the police have seized. Where it is proved that the person from whose possession the property was seized came by it dishonestly, the Magistrate may have to consider questions of title in order to determine the best right to possession.

But as observed in Lakshmichand v. Gopikisan (1935) 38 Bom LR 117, where it appears that the police have seized property from a person who is not shown to have committed any offence in relation to that property, the Magistrate can only hold that person is entitled to possession of the property.

It was further noted in ASS Ahmed v. Commissioner of Police, Madras AIR 1970 Mad 220 that once the property is seized under the circumstances mentioned in the section then, irrespective of the fact whether the investigation by the police discloses an offence or not, the Court has to dispose of the property and while doing so, it has got an absolute discretion to pass an order as it thinks fit.

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