The question raised for a decision in this revision is whether the civil court before which a document was produced and admitted in evidence is bound to return that document to the party who produced it notwithstanding that in relation to the said document an offence is said to be committed and the document is necessary in connection with investigation of the criminal case.

2. Petitioner before me is the plaintiff in O.S.No.207 of 2007 of the court of learned Munsiff, Chengannur. That was a suit for declaration of title over certain shares claimed by the petitioner. The suit ended in an ex parte decree dated 29-11-2008 in favour of the petitioner. It is not disputed that the documents referred to herein were marked in the said suit on the side of petitioner. There was no appeal preferred against the ex parte decree by any of the respondents. In the meantime, the Detective Inspector, Crime Branch, C.I.D. Alappuzha preferred Application No.612 of 2009 before the learned Munsiff accompanied by a complaint presented to the Director General of Police, Thiruvananthapuram and a copy of First Information Report requesting that as the documents produced by petitioner in the suit a