Essential ingredient of offence punishable under s.409 of IPC
Section 409 can be invoked only if it can be shown that the accused being in any manner entrusted with property or with dominion over property in his capacity as public servant committed criminal breach of trust in respect of that property. The offence of criminal breach is defined in Section 405 and an essential ingredient of this offence is that the accused being in any manner entrusted with property or with dominion over property, dishonestly misappropriates or converts to his own use that property or dishonestly uses or disposes of that property in violation of any direction of law prescribing the mode in which such trust is to be discharged or of any legal contract, express or implied, which he has made touching the discharge of such trust. Here as we have already pointed out, the appellant was admittedly entrusted with the receipt-book or in any event with dominion over it, but there is no evidence to establish that he dishonestly misappropriated the receipt book or converted it to his own use or dishonestly used or disposed of the receipt book. It is quite possible that the appellant might have lost or mislaid the receipt book and hence he might have been unable to return it to the superior authorities. What the section requires is something much more than mere failure or omission to return the receipt book. The prosecution has to go further and show that the appellant dishonestly misappropriated or converted the receipt book to his own use or dishonestly used or disposed of it. That, we are afraid, the prosecution has not been able to do in the present case. We are, therefore, of the view that the appellant was wrongly convicted under Section 409.
Supreme Court of India
Sardar Singh vs State Of Haryana on 1 November, 1976
Equivalent citations: AIR 1977 SC 1766, 1977 CriLJ 1158, (1977) 1 SCC 463
Bench: A Gupta, P Bhagwati
https://www.lawweb.in/2013/08/essential-ingredient-of-offence.html
