Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) Subject to any law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory permitting the retention, destruction or disposal of a thing seized as evidential material by an officer under a search warrant or section 9 of the Crimes Act 1914 , the officer in charge of the investigation must return it if:
(a) the reason for its seizure no longer exists or it is decided that it is not to be used in evidence; or
(b) 120 days after its seizure:
(i) proceedings in respect of which the thing may afford evidence have not been started; and
(ii) an order permitting the thing to be retained has not been made under section 107EB; and
(iii) an order of a court of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory permitting the retention, destruction or disposal of the thing has not been made;
whichever first occurs.
(2) For the purposes of this section, the return of a thing requires its return to the person reasonably believed to be the owner of the thing in a condition as near as practicable to the condition in which it was seized.