HC dismisses plea claiming ownership of 1,385 diamonds

The High Court of Karnataka dismissed a plea of a woman claiming ownership over 1,385 diamonds unearthed from a wall in an old building at KH Road three decades ago.

Uma, wife of one Chakravarthy had filed the petition. The government counsel contended that in such cases, the right or eligibility to take a share in the unearthed treasure would be of the property owner or the people who excavated the said area. Here the petitioner is neither the owner of the property nor has she unearthed it. So she cannot claim authority over the diamond crystals, the counsel said.

Case background

In 1988, the labourer Raju had unearthed 1,385 diamond crystals from the building during the demolition. Later he had sold it to Chakravarthy. Following the incidence, Mohammed Wasim, the watchman of the building had lodged a police complaint, after which the police had recovered the diamonds from Chakravarthy.

After a few years, Chakravarthy passed away. His wife Uma requested the deputy commissioner to handover the diamonds to her. However, the DC dismissed the request on December 9, 2009.

Later, Uma had filed the petition in the high court requesting it to hand over the diamonds to her under the Treasury Trove Act.

However, Justice R Devdas dismissed the petition on Thursday.