Legal provisions regarding claims and Objections to attachment under section 84 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
(1) If any claim is preferred to, or objection made to the attachment of any property attached under Section 83, within six months from the date of such attachment, by any person other than the proclaimed person, on the ground that the claimant or objector has an interest in such property, and that such interest is not liable to attachment under Section 83, the claim or objection shall be inquired into, and may be allowed or disallowed in whole or in part. However, any claim preferred or objection made within the period allowed by this sub-section may, in the event of the death of the claimant or objector, be continued by his legal representative.
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(2) Claims or objections under sub-section (1) may be preferred or made in the Court by which the order of attachment is issued or, if the claim or objection is in respect of property attached under an order endorsed under sub-section (2) of Section 83, in the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of the district in which the attachment is made.
(3) Every such claim or objection shall be inquired into by the Court in Whom it is preferred or made. However, if it is preferred or made in the Court of a Chief Judicial Magistrate, he may make it over for disposal to any Magistrate subordinate to him.
(4) Any person whose claim or objection has been disallowed in whole or in part by an order under sub-section (1) may, within a period of one year from the date of such order, institute a suit to establish the right which claims in respect of the property in dispute; but subject to the result of such suit, if any, the order shall be conclusive.
Section 84 deals with rights of persons other than proclaimed person in the property attached. Claims and objections in regard to the attached property can be preferred only so long as the property continues to remain under attachment. Once the property has been released from attachment, the third party cannot file claim petition, claiming the same as his own. His only remedy lies in filing a civil suit.
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However, when a remedy is provided in a particular Act and it shows that the jurisdiction of the civil court is impliedly barred, the civil Court shall have no jurisdiction to try any suit in connection with that matter.
When a claim or objection is filed, the law enjoins upon the Magistrate to investigate it and to come to a decision. Inquiry into the claim is a ‘judicial proceeding’. It is only a final order made after inquiry under Section 84(1) which is considered ‘conclusive’ under Section 84(4) and not liable to be disturbed in any criminal Court.
Where the attached property has been converted into money, the relief that should be claimed by the plaintiff is for that money itself.
The order passed by the Magistrate refusing to release the property from attachment is passed in judicial proceedings and thus revisable under Section 397 of the Code.