TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2007 (2) TMI 720
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....7 passed by the Jammu & Kashmir Consumers Protection 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 cove....
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....or care, protection or to commit something trustfully or plays trust upon a person'. 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 applica....
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....forementioned legal aspect of the matter, we may advert to the meaning of the word '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, mo....
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....im. The word 'customer' contained in Clause 8 (c) of the Insurance Policy must be read ejusdem generis. 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 Diction....
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....used in a colloquial popular sense. Thus the word "flood" in the phrase "Storm, tempest or floor" does not cover a case where a 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 ....
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....t, there must be an entrustment, there must be misappropriation or conversion to one's own use, or use in violation of a legal direction or of any legal 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 Ja....