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2015 (5) TMI 1184 - HC - Companies LawWhether the petition of complaint on the face of it discloses commission of offence of theft or dishonest misappropriation of property or not? HELD THAT:- Under Section 378 of the I.P.C., there must be intention to take any movable property out of possession of any person without that person's consent. That is the first requirement to attract the definition of theft. Secondly, such property must be moved in order to such taking. Even if the complaint petition is accepted as it is, it would reveal that the concerned petitioners have used the content of document Nos. 1 to 28, and the documents are admittedly lying where they ought to. The complainant is making out a case that the documents were removed for photocopying by the accused persons. No case has been made out in the petition of complaint that the information contained in the documents per se had any legally protectable feature fitting the characteristic of property. Theft has been complained of in relation to taking the property in the form of documents temporarily out of possession of the complainant. The allegations in respect of one set of documents (i.e. serial Nos. 1 to 28 of the Schedule), the originals of which are still with their lawful custodians, do not constitute the offence of theft or dishonest misappropriation of property. But so far as the other set of documents is concerned, it cannot be held at this stage that no offence has been disclosed. From the petition of complaint, it is found that the complainant has specified the accused persons who have used these two sets. The movable properties, comprising of 54 documents which, it is alleged are subjects of the three substantive offences-theft, dishonest misappropriation of property and receiving stolen property are segregable. So far allegations pertaining to the documents specified against serial Nos. 1 to 28, the petition of complaint does not disclose the ingredients of the three aforesaid offences. But as regards allegations concerning documents specified against serial Nos. 29 to 54 are concerned, the petitioners' case is not sustainable. The petition of complaint discloses the ingredients of the offences alleged to have been committed in respect of this set of documents. Application disposed off.
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