TMI Blog2007 (2) TMI 720X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on Commission. 2. Respondent herein carries on business in jewellery. It obtained a policy known as 'Jeweller Block Policy'. A theft of 140 gms of jewellery worth of Rs. 63,000/- occurred in his business premises. A First Information Report was lodged therefore. Respondent also lodged a claim with the appellant herein. The same having not been settled for a long time, an application was filed before the State Consumers Protection Commission constituted under the J K Consumers Protection Act, 1987. 3. The question raised before the Commission was as to whether the loss in question was covered by the insurance policy. Appellant contended that the claim of the respondent is covered by an exclusion clause contained in the policy ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ;. If a customer enters the premises of a shopkeeper and examines some movable property and takes away the same, then there hardly arises any occasion for entrustment to such a customer. In the present case a customer entered the business premises and removed 140 gms. of Jewellery. There was no entrustment on the part of the owner to the customer. The act of removal of the goods by the customer is nothing but a plain theft. This is a dishonest taking and removing the property by the customer with the intent of permanently depriving the owner. 6. A short question which, thus, arises for our consideration is as to whether Clause 8 of the policy is applicable to the facts and circumstances of the present case. It is not in dispute that a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 9;entrust'. Its ordinary meaning, would mean to charge or invest with a trust; to commit to another with a certain confidence regarding his care [See Advanced Law Lexicon by P. Ramanatha Aiyar - 3rd Edn. -Book 2 - pagel613]. 9. It requires no elaboration that offences of 'breach of trust' and 'theft' contain different ingredients. Whereas theft has been defined in Section 378 of the Indian Penal Code; breach of trust has been defined in Section 405 thereof, which read as under: 378. Theft.- Whoever, intending to take dishonestly any moveable property out of the possession of any person without that person's consent, moves that property in order to such taking, is said to commit theft. Illustration (d) appe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eneris. A customer contemplated thereunder must have to be one who would be a man of trust. If a customer is not a man of trust or the property had not been entrusted to him, the exclusion clause would not apply. The customer who committed theft of jewellery was an unknown person. It was so categorically stated in the First Information Report. There was, thus, no occasion for the respondent to entrust the jewellery to him. 12. Mr. Vishnu Mehra, the learned Counsel appearing for the appellant has relied upon the meaning of the word 'entrust' as contained in Black's Law Dictionary, 8th Edn. and Webster's Universal Dictionary. In Black's Law Dictionary, the word 'entrust' has been defined as under: To give ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... house-holder's bathroom is affected by upward seepage of water to a depth of three inches, as the context of the word requires an event violent, sudden or abnormal. Similarly, heavy rain is not in itself likely to constitute a storm. It has also been held that the phrase sum actually paid in a reinsurance agreement referred to a sum which the reinsured is merely liable to pay, as the agreement read as a whole was against liability rather than actual payment. 15. In The State of Gujarat v. Jaswant Lal Natha Lal 1968CriLJ803 , this Court held: ...The expression 'entrustment' carries with it the implication that the person handing over any property or on whose behalf that property is handed over to another, continues to be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... egal contract; and the misappropriation or conversion or disposal must be with a dishonest intention. When a person allows others to misappropriate the money entrusted to him, that amounts to a criminal breach of trust as defined by Section 405. The section is relatable to property in a positive part and a negative part. The positive part deals with criminal misappropriation or conversion of the property and the negative part consists of dishonestly using or disposing of the property in violation of any direction and of law or any contract touching the discharge of trust. 362. In Jaswantrai Manilal Akhaney v. State of Bombay 1956CriLJ1116 it was held that if the Managing Director of the Bank entrusted with securities owned by the pledgor ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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