Section 195 in The West Bengal Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989
195. Disposal of articles found in vehicles operated by State Transport Undertakings.
(1)If any article is left behind in any transport vehicle operated by a State Transport Undertaking the owner of such articles shall submit a claim with sufficient proof of ownership in-writing in this regard within a period of one month to the Chief Executive Officer of the State Transport Undertaking. The Chief Executive Officer after being satisfied that the ownership of the claim has been established, shall return the left articles and shall keep a record thereof.(2)In case of specially valuable articles the returning officer may at his discretion call upon the claimant for the execution of a suitable Bond of Indemnity which shall remain in force for three months after execution and if no fresh claim is received within that period, the bond shall be discharged.(3)If no such claim is preferred within a month the State Transport Undertaking may sell the articles in an auction, after publishing a notice of the auction in two important daily newspapers including one published in the Regional Language stating therein the date, time and place of auction along with a list of articles to be sold. The articles will be sold to the highest bidder and the sale-proceeds thereof shall in accordance with the provisions of section 106 of the Act, be paid to the owner if his claim is established on demand, after deducting the costs incidental to sale.(4)If no demand is made within three months of the auction sale, the sale proceeds shall be forfeited to the State Transport Undertaking.
