Judgment

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J. - On the intervening night of 31st March 1967 and 1st April 1967, two sandstone pillars of great antiquity, beauty and value were stolen from Suraj Kund temple, in village Amin (District Karnal, Haryana). They were of the Sunga period (2nd Century B. C.) and their present estimated value in the international Art Treasures Market is said to be around five hundred thousand American dollars. A first information report (F.I.R. No. 72 of 1967) was registered by the Police of Lutana, District Karnal. The pillars were recovered on 2nd May 1967. On completion of investigation a charge-sheet was filed on 3rd October 1967 in the Court of the Ilaqa Magistrate at Karnal, against one Bali Ram Sharma and two others. The case ended in their acquittal on 16th July 1968. During the pendency of the case one Narinder Nath Malik (N. N. Malik) filed an application before the Magistrate alleging that he was a research scholar and requesting that he might be given custody of the two pillars to enable him to make a detailed study. At the instance of H. L. Mehra, the then Chief Judicial Magistrate, Karnal and a friend of N. N. Malik, the learned Ilaqa Magistrate gave custody of