INTRODUCTION
First of all, we need to get the basic idea of what is meant by criminal breach of trust so that we can grasp the grip in studying this important part of the law. as the heading suggests the meaning is that when a person puts his trust in some other person and transfers possession of the property and he ultimately does some act which breaches (breaks) the trust of the owner of the property.
In this concept, the law has seen many situations arises like this and a legal issue is created so the sections regarding this offence are added in the INDIAN PENAL CODE to help the deceased person and ultimately gets the reward and justice he/she requires.
LAWS IN INDIA
As the authorities see a new offence is growing and growing and it needs a specific section related to that matter then amendments take place and in the aspect of criminal breach of trust the authorities not failed to put up sections as follows-
1) section 405 IPC – meaning of criminal breach of trust.
2) section 406 IPC- punishment for criminal breach of trust.
3) section 407 IPC- criminal breach of trust by carrier, etc.
4) section 408 IPC- criminal breach of trust by clerk and servant.
5) section 409 IPC- criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or banker, merchant or agent.
EXPLANATION TO SECTIONS-
section 405-
whoever being in a manner entrusted with property or with any dominion over that property dishonestly misappropriates or covert the property for his own use, or dishonestly uses or dispose of that property is against the law prescribing the method to dispose of that possessed property, the legal contract can be both express or implied, which he has made touching the discharge of trust, or willfully suffers any other person so to do.
example- if a person is an employer of an establishment where he has the duty to deduct some amount from wages of the other employee and the amount which gets deducted is going to the provident fund of that particular employee and if that employer makes any mistake and default in that duty and uses such amount he had deducted for his own selfish use then he is liable under section 405 of IPC because he entrusted with that amount and he cannot breach the trust of the employees.
section 406- punishment for criminal breach of trust,
whoever commits criminal breach of trust shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 3 years or with fine, or with both.
section 407- criminal breach of trust by carrier,
whoever being entrusted with the property being a carrier, wharfinger or warehouse keeper commits criminal breach of trust in respect of such property, shall be punished with imprisonment of which may extend to 7 years and also liable to fine.
as the position of the person entrusted with possession of property increases like in this section position of clerk here the responsibility of keeping the goods safe increases like in the situation of the postman carrying a money order to respective place but he makes default in transferring that money order and uses that money for his own use than he is liable under this section of criminal breach of trust.
section 408- criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant,
whoever is entrusted with the property being a clerk or servant and being in any manner entrusted with the property or with any dominion over a property commits criminal breach of trust in respect of that property, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to 7 years or shall be liable to fine.
section 409- criminal breach of trust by a public servant or by banker, merchant or agent,
whoever is entrusted with the property being a public servant or by banker, merchant, factor, broker, attorney or agent commits criminal breach of trust in respect of that property, shall be punished with imprisonment of life or with imprisonment of imprisonment which may extend to 10 years, shall be liable to fine.
in this, the role of the person is full of responsibility so the law has given rigorous punishment to this section of employees because of their more respectable role as the employees.
INGREDIENTS OF SECTIONS
1) it is necessary to transfer the possession of the property to some other person.
2) it is not required to transfer the right of the property to the person whom the possession is transferred.
3) it is necessary that the property is transferred without any coercion and done with a free will of the owner of the property.
4) without the transfer of possession, the offence of criminal breach of trust cannot be instituted.
Possession is of 2 types
1) direct possession- in this type of possession the property itself is given or transferred to some other person straight away.
example- person “A” gives his notebook to person “B” so in this the property is straight away is given to the person.
2) CONSTRUCTIVE POSSESSION- in this type of possession the property is not transferred straight away, means directly property is not transferred.
example- person “A” parked his car near his own house but he gives the keys of the car to person “B” in this aspect the possession is transferred to person “B” only by handing over the keys to him and not by transferring a car.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MISAPPROPRIATION AND CRIMINAL BREACH OF TRUST
criminal breach of trust criminal misappropriation
1) in this entrustment of property is being 1) misappropriation of property it does not
misappropriated. matter hoe property is received.
2) it needs to be a contractual relationship 2) no contractual relationship is required.
between the parties.
3) in this the property is misappropriated 3) in this the property is came to the
by the accused and the property is received accused by some accident and he use
by him is through entrustment. it for his own use.
LANDMARK JUDGEMENTS
JASWANTLAL V STATE[1], in this case, the state sold the cement only on the condition that it should be used for construction only, but some portion of the cement diverted to godown, hence the court held this as a criminal breach of trust, it defines the word “entrustment” as when a person is entitled to hold a property, the owner still remains the same to whom the property belongs.
SOHAN LAL V. EMPEROR [2], this is the case of dishonest misappropriation of property for own use, dishonesty is defined in section 23 and 24 as intentionally causing wrongful gain or loss to that person.
DALMIA V DELHI ADMINISTRATION [3], in this case, the word property was to be widely interpreted. it held that whether an offence has been committed under this act will be decisive based on the fact of how the word property has been interpreted.
CONCLUSION
ultimately, we have come to the conclusion that for the offence of criminal breach of trust. there should be 3 essential parts need to be present, the property needs to be presented and its interpretation is most crucial, entrustment of that property to some other person and discharge or use of such property to violate the contractual obligation to discharge.
REFERENCES
1] SCA/938/2012
2] 31 Ind Cas 651
3] 1963 SCR (1) 253
This blog is written by Shivam, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies.
Some more of Shivam BLOGs,
- ACID ATTACK: A NEW FACET OF GENDER-BASED CRIME
- SECTION 498A OF INDIAN PENAL CODE 1860
- DEATH BY NEGLIGENCE
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