Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
The Court On Its Own Motion vs The State Of West Bethe A.C.J.M. ... on 16 June, 2017
Author: Nishita Mhatre
Bench: Nishita Mhatre
1 16.06.2017 Item No.3 Ct. No.1 AB To be mentioned W.P. 11126 (W) of 2017 In the matter of : The Court on its own motion
- versus -
The State of West BeThe A.C.J.M. Kalimpong & Ors.
Mr. Jayanta Sengupta Mr. Partha Banerjee ..... for the Indian Museum Mr. Asraf Ali .... For the C.B.I. While investigating the theft of the Nobel Medallion of Rabindranath Tagore as well as some other items from Santiniketan, Bolpur the CBI found Buddist religious manuscripts and artefacts which are engraved with gold. These articles were seized and prosecution case No. GR 89 of 2004, T.R. No. 07 of 2005 under Sections 411 and 414 of the IPC was initiated by the CBI before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kalimpong.
During the trial the aforesaid seized articles were kept in the malkhana of the Court. By the judgment dated 28th November, 2011 the ACJM passed an order directing the CBI to take control and custody of the steel trunk (marked Exhibit-V) containing the Buddist manuscript with wooden covers and other artefacts so that they could be 2 transported to the Indian National Museum. The Director of the Indian National Museum was further directed to receive the treasures for preservation in the National Indian Museum as national property.
As mentioned earlier the judgment was delivered by the ACJM on 28th November, 2011 however, the CBI did not take any steps to transport these treasure to the Indian National Museum. A further order was passed on 16th November, 2012 by the ACJM directing both the Court Inspector as well as the Director of the Indian National Museum to ensure that the directions contained in the judgment are complied. Unfortunately no steps were taken either by the CBI or the Court Inspector or the Director of the Indian National Museum to comply with the order.
We have taken suo-motu notice on 7th April, 2017 of a newspaper report published on the same date in the Times of India entitled "1,500 year old antique rots in Court store room". Pursuant to the order passed by us, a report was submitted by the Registrar General of this Court on 27th April, 2017 indicating that a steel trunk which contained the artefacts had been received by the Indian National Museum. However, the key of the steel trunk had not been handed over by the CBI to the Indian National 3 Museum. In these circumstances, we directed the CBI to immediately open the trunk so that the contents could be verified and handed over to the Indian National Museum. Our order was complied on that day itself, which is apparent from a draft report submitted by the Indian National Museum with respect to the contents of the trunk which has been taken on record on 5th May, 2017.
It is nothing but callousness, carelessness and negligence on the part of the CBI which has caused national treasures to be locked in a trunk in the malkhana of the Court for almost six years. Although the Trial Court had passed the order the order on 28th November, 2011 the CBI took no steps at all to implement the order so as to ensure that the treasure is not lost for the generations to come. Fortunately, it has now found its rightful place in the Indian National Musuem. We have been told that because of the moisture in the malkhana of the Court the artefacts are likely to have suffered some damage and the museum is now undertaking the process of restoring and preserving the artefacts. We hope that the permission sought by the Museum from His Excellency The Governor of the State of West Bengal to display the artefacts in Indian National Museum will be granted soon.
4
The writ petition is disposed of.
There shall, however, be no order as to costs. Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be handed over to the parties on compliance of necessary formalities.
(Nishita Mhatre, A.C.J.) (Tapabrata Chakraborty,J.)