V.K. Shrivastava, J.
1. Heard.
2. On being financed by respondent No. 2, applicant purchased one Tata Specio vehicle from National Garage, Bilaspur, and agreed to repay the loan to respondent No. 2 through post dated cheques. Later on it was found that National Garage, Bilaspur, cheated him by giving second hand vehicle in place of new one. Therefore, he made a request to respondent No. 2 for taking action against National Garage, Bilaspur, but no action has been taken by respondent No. 2, hence applicant himself lodged a report. On his report crime No. 186/2002 for commission of offence under Sections 420, 467 and 468 read with Section 34 of the IPC was registered against Ravi Kumar Budhiya and four others. Investigating the said crime police seized vehicle from the applicant Gurjeet Singh Mann bearing No. CG-15/6008. For taking back the vehicle on Supurdnama, applicant approached the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ambikapur and the Court after due hearing directed that the vehicle be released on various conditions and out of those conditions one condition was that the applicant shall deposit the instalments with respondent No. 2, as per agreement. The said condition had been challenged in revision, but the Revisional Court vide order dated 6-4-2004 passed in Criminal Revision No. 249/2003, disallowed the revision and maintained the order passed by the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate. Being aggrieved by that order, applicant has filed this petition under Section 482 of the Cr.PC for quashing the condition imposed by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ambikapur, regarding repayment of loan in instalments to respondent No. 2.
3. Sections 451 and 457 of the Cr.PC read as below :-
“451. Order for custody and disposal of property pending trial in certain cases.- When any property is produced before any Criminal Court during any enquiry or trial, the Court may make such order as it thinks fit for the proper custody of such property pending, the conclusion of the inquiry or trial, and if the properly is subject to speedy and natural decay, or if it is otherwise expedient so to do, the Court may, after recording such evidence as it thinks necessary, order it to be sold or otherwise disposed of.
Explanation :- For the purpose of this section, ‘property’ in-eludes-
(a) property of any kind or document which is produced be fore the Court or which is in its custody;
(b) any property regarding which an offence appears to have been committed or which appears to have been used for the commission of any offence; and
457. Procedure by police upon seizure of property.- (1) 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 can not be ascertained respecting the custody and production of such property.
(2) 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.”
4. When any property seized in connection with any offence is lying with Criminal Court during pendency of trial or enquiry, then the Court may, under Section 451 of the Cr.PC, for its proper cusgtody, pass such order as it thinks fit and if there is no enquiry or trial pending, but any property has been seized by the police in connection with any offence and that property is to be delivered to person entitled to the possession thereof, then that property can be delivered on such conditions as the Magistrate thinks fit for its custody and production. Pertinent to mention here that the Court below invoking the power vested with it under Section 457 of the Cr.PC has to pass the order for its delivery to the person entitled to possession thereof while delivering the property the Magistrate has been empowered to put conditions whichever he thinks fit with respect to its custody and production, but the judicial discretion for imposing any condition is to be exercised considering the circumstances of the case and not arbitrarily. Applicant lodged a report in police station regarding the transaction which look place in purchase of the said vehicle and clearly stated that under the finance received from respondent No. 2, he purchased the vehicle from National Garage, Bilaspur, but respondent No. 2 in collusion with National Garage, Bilaspur, cheated him and as a result of that a second hand vehicle has been sold to him. In these circumstances, it is clear that the property sold to the applicant was sold by playing fraud on him. Therefore, whether the finance company was entitled to get its intalments or not was to be decided by a Competent Court of civil jurisdiction and without having any such adjudication the Magistrate, directing the applicant to pay the instalment without having any authority as he was empowered to put only those conditions by which he can ensure the safe custody and its production as and when required, has certainly exceeded his jurisdiction. Therefore, the condition to pay the instalments was uncalled for and in the garb of Section 457 of the Cr.PC, issuance of direction to the applicant to pay the instalments of loan amount to respondent No. 2 is not only illegal, without jurisdiction, uncalled for but also causes miscarriage of justice to the applicant.
5. Taking into account all the facts and materials available on record, the petition filed by the applicant under Section 482 of the Cr.PC is allowed. Conditions imposed by Chief Judicial Magistrate in Miscellaneous Criminal Case No. 249/2003 vide order dated 2-8-2003 Para 9 “C” that “the instalment of loan amount should be paid every month to Magma Leasing Ltd., as per the agreement is cancelled.