Supurdari and Exemption From Attendance

What is supurdari? It comes from 'supurd,' meaning to hand over. When a case is registered, or when an agency picks something up thinking it's ownerless, there's a procedure to get it back, let me explain with an example, there are countless examples, but I'll give you one: A's car is stolen from outside his house, he gets an FIR registered. After this FIR is registered, the car is recovered, recovered from some accused. Now that car will remain as case property, as case evidence, in police custody, because this accused was caught in connection with this case and this car was recovered from him. Now who knows how long that case will run, six months, a year, two years, four years, no one can predict. Now A finds out my stolen car was recovered from such-and-such person and is currently in police custody. A will go to court and file an application that I am the owner of this car, my car was stolen, this case was registered, my car has been recovered and is currently with the police, I went to the police, asking they give me my car, and they say this is case property, we cannot give you this car without the court's permission because it has become part of the case record. My car, no one knows how long the case will run, my car be returned to me, given to my custody. I am ready to give this surety bond, that when the court summons this case property, this car, this case property, I will produce it in court. The court requests a report from the relevant police station regarding this, they give that report, that in such-and-such case this car was stolen, in such-and-such case this accused was caught, this car was recovered from the accused, and from his possession, no further investigation is needed regarding it, that report comes in. The judge will confirm that yes, this person was the owner of this car, or the last owner. If the court confirms that yes, he was also its last owner, he was also its owner, and there's no other claimant, then it will give him the car on supurdari. Some complications come up here, keep this in mind, those complications are along these lines: suppose I bought a car, now the car isn't in my name yet, but I have the car's documents. Now the FIR establishes that I am the last owner, the car was in my possession when it was stolen, so the court, according to the law, will give the car to the last owner if there's no other claimant. Some situations also happen where a stolen car is tampered with and sold on. Now when the car is recovered, they catch it because of the tampering, the original numbers surface under the tampering, and it's discovered this car actually belonged to someone else. Now the police complete their investigation and take the car into their custody. Now for supurdari, the second owner who bought the tampered car also goes, and the original owner whose car it was also goes. Now both applications come in, if it's established that after the theft the car was tampered with, and after being tampered with was sold to someone else, then the car will go to the actual owner, not to him, and sometimes there's a lot of fraud involved here too: I bought a car, my car got stolen, after my car was stolen it got tampered with, after tampering it was sold on, it got caught, now the police say the person from whom this car was recovered, who bought it, says not only was it tampered with, but when it was in the possession of the person who registered the FIR, it was already tampered with too, and its real number is this. Now the person with the real number can't be traced. Now a fight breaks out between these two, the plaintiff who also bought a tampered car, and the second person from whom it was recovered. Now who does the court give the car to? Now the court has two paths, either the court will refuse and say this car goes neither to A nor to B, or the court will give it to whoever the last owner is, and if the actual owner comes forward, it will be taken from the last owner and given to the actual owner, that's the structure of supurdari. Now the next topic is exemption from attendance for the accused, this is also basic knowledge for a young lawyer starting out, exemption from attendance. There are two kinds of exemption from attendance: one is for attendance on a hearing date, exemption from attendance for a specific hearing date, that I'm ill, my such-and-such relative has died, I have this problem, I have this problem, I was at work and couldn't get leave, I gave this in writing too that I intended to come, there could be many factors, for one date. And there's permanent exemption from attendance, courts easily grant temporary exemption for a specific date using discretionary power, but for permanent exemption from attendance for the accused, that, sir, my lawyer will appear, I be given permanent relief in my place, that my personal physical attendance be excused forever, when the court summons me I will appear, but generally, in my absence, my lawyer or whoever's standing in for me, or my co-accused, handles everything. Now here there's a distinction between magisterial trial and Sessions trial, if there's a lone accused, exemption from attendance may not be possible, if there's more than one accused, exemption from attendance may be granted. The accused needs to prove that if I come, I'll suffer irreparable harm, combined with the fact that this case against me is false and its very purpose is that I keep coming here repeatedly, causing me harm, my life is at risk, if I keep coming on every hearing date, I'll eventually get killed on some hearing date or other. I am sick, my illness is such that I'm bedridden twenty-four hours a day, coming to court will cost so much, I'll need an ambulance, have to be carried to the second floor, and I am willing, I cannot come, and my not coming won't affect the case proceedings at all, so my attendance be excused and such-and-such person appear in my place on every hearing date and mark attendance and follow the proceedings, this is the logic of exemption from attendance. I hope I have told you about exemption from attendance and supurdari.