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fixing this term the Court will in no case be suffered to exceed a certain maximum, which will vary according to the nature of the offence. If the offence be one which is punishable with imprisonment as well as fine, the term of imprisonment in default of payment will not exceed one-fourth of the longest term of imprisonment fixed by the Code for the offence. If the offence be one which, by the Code, is punishable only with fine, the term of imprisonment for default of payment will in no case exceed seven days.' But this imprisonment is not taken in full satisfaction of the fine. The offender cannot be allowed to choose whether he will suffer in his person or in his property. To adopt such a course would be to exempt from the punishment of fine those very persons who dislike that punishment most, and who the apprehension of a fine would be most likely to restrain.

The imprisonment which an offender has undergone does not release him from the pecuniary obligation under which he lies. Sec. 70 provides that at any time during a certain limited period the fine may be levied on his effects by distress, and if the fine is paid or levied while he is imprisoned for default of payment the imprisonment immediately terminates (sec. 68), and if a portion of the fine be paid during the imprisonment, a proportional abatement of the imprisonment takes place.

The framers of the Code thought it unnecessary to place in the Whipping. list of punishments incapacitation for office, dismissal from office1, degrading public exhibition 2, subjection to police-supervision, and flogging. In 1864, however, the Indian Legislature decided on adding the last-mentioned punishment. The objections to it are obvious, but in the East it is not regarded as causing such indelible disgrace as it causes in Western countries. The offender is not exposed to the contaminating and unhealthy influences of an oriental gaol, his wife and children are not deprived of their breadwinner, and the public is saved the expense of maintaining him in prison. It is, moreover, as Sir Henry Maine remarked, the most strongly deterrent of known punishments.

Flogging cannot be inflicted on females, or on males of more than forty-five years of age; and the Code of Criminal Procedure (secs. 391-395) contains other provisions as to the execution of the sentence which preclude all undue severity.

This may be inflicted under Act XXXVII of 1850 (for regulating inquiries into the behaviour of Public Servants), sec. 22.

'Confinement in the village stocks may be inflicted under Madras Reg.

XI of 1816, sec. 10. See 6 Mad. 247:
Mad. H. C. Rulings, xxxiii.

5

3 There is also a special Regulation (III of 1875) as to whipping in the Assam Hill Districts.

Detention

matory.

The punishment of detention in a reformatory school is inflicted in Refor- only on boys who, being at the time. under the age of 16 years, have been convicted of any offence punishable with imprisonment or transportation. The provisions in force on this subject are contained in Act V of 1876.

Concurrent

Where several offences have been committed by one person beoffences. fore he has been punished for any of them, they are said to 'concur." The concurrence of several criminal acts is dealt with by sec. 71 of the Penal Code and sec. 35 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Cumulative punishments are dealt with by the Criminal Procedure Code, sec. 35, and the Penal Code, sec. 112. There is no provision as to the commensurability of punishments, and the only provision as to relapse is that contained in sec. 75.

Cumula

tive punishments.

Relapse. Commutation of sentence.

Classified

list of punishments.

Secs. 54 and 55 empower the Government of India or the local Government to commute sentences in certain cases without the consent of the offender, and a general provision as to commutation is contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, sec. 402, which provides that the Governor-General in Council or the Local Government may, without the consent of the person sentenced, commute any one of the following sentences for any other mentioned after it death, transportation, penal servitude, rigorous imprisonment for a term not exceeding that to which he might have been sentenced, simple imprisonment for a like term, fine. It is obviously fit that the Government should be empowered to commute the sentence of death for any other punishment provided by the Penal Code. It is also desirable that the Government should have the power of commuting perpetual transportation for perpetual imprisonment. Many circumstances of which the executive authorities ought to be accurately informed, but which must be often unknown to the ablest judge, may, at particular times, render it highly inconvenient to carry a sentence of transportation into effect. The state of those remote provinces of the empire in which convict settlements are established, and the way in which the interest of those provinces may be affected by any addition to the convict population, are matters which lie altogether out of the cognizance of the tribunals by which those sentences are passed, and which the Government only is competent to decide.'

As the Code often refers to classes of offences according to the punishments respectively annexed thereto, it may be useful to give here the following classified list of punishments, with the numbers of the sections under which they may, or must, be inflicted::

(a) may be inflicted: secs. 121, 132, 194, 302, 303, 305, 307, 396.
(b) must be inflicted: sec. 303 (murder committed by a life-convict).

(a) for life may be inflicted: secs. 75, 121, 121 A, 122, 125, 125 A, 128, 130,
131, 132, 194, 222, 225, 226, 238, 255, 302, 304, 305, 307, 311, 313, 314,
326, 329, 364, 371, 376, 377, 388, 389, 394, 395, 396, 400, 409, 412, 413,
436, 438, 449, 459, 460, 467, 472, 474, 475, 477.

(b) for life must be inflicted: secs. 226, 311.

(c) for any term may be inflicted: sec. 124 A.

(d) for not less than seven years and not more than the term for which the

offender might be imprisoned may be inflicted: sec. 59.

(a) which may extend to fourteen years: secs. 115, 222, 392, 457, 458.

(b) which may extend to ten years: secs. 75, 119, 121 A, 122, 123, 128, 131,

132, 194, 225, 232, 235, 238, 240, 251, 255, 304-307, 313-316, 326–329, 331,

333, 364, 366, 367, 371-373, 376, 377, 382, 386, 388, 389, 392, 394-396, 399,

400, 409, 412, 413, 436-439, 449, 450, 454, 455, 459, 460, 467, 493, 495.

(c) which may extend to ten years and shall not be less than seven years:

secs. 397, 3981.

(d) which may extend to seven years: secs. 115, 118, 124-127, 134, 193, 195,

201, 211, 213, 214, 216, 219-222, 225, 231, 234, 243–245, 247, 249, 256–260,

281, 308, 312, 317, 325, 330, 363, 365, 369, 370, 380, 381, 387, 393, 401,

402, 404, 407, 408, 420, 433, 435, 451, 452, 466, 468, 472-477, 494, 496,

506.

(e) which may extend to five years: secs. 212, 239, 250, 253, 429-432, 440,
457, 497-

(which may extend to four years: sec. 335.

g) which may extend to three years: secs. 117, 118, 124 A, 129, 133, 148,

152, 162, 164, 167, 181, 193, 201, 205, 212, 213, 214, 216, 218, 221, 222,

225, 225 A, 233, 235, 237, 242, 246, 248, 252, 261, 263, 308, 312, 324, 332,

344, 347, 348, 379, 384, 404, 406, 411, 414, 418, 419, 454, 456, 462, 469,

484, 485, 487.

(A) which may extend to two years: secs. 135, 136, 144, 145, 147, 158, 165,

169, 170, 177, 189, 203, 204, 206–211, 215, 217, 221, 223, 224, 225, 225 A,

229, 241, 254, 262, 270, 295, 304 A, 318, 338, 343, 345, 346, 353-356, 385,

403, 421-424, 427, 428, 451, 453, 461, 465, 483, 498, 500-502, 504-507.

(1) which may extend to one year: secs. 153, 163, 166, 168, 190, 264-267,296,

297, 298, 309, 323, 342, 357, 374, 417, 434, 448, 482, 486, 489, 508, 509.

(which may extend to six months: secs. 138, 143, 151, 153, 158, 172-179,

182, 183, 187, 188, 202, 225 B, 228, 269, 271-276, 279, 280, 282, 284-289,

291, 294 A, 337.

(k) which may extend to three months: secs. 140, 171, 180, 186, 277, 292,
293, 294, 336, 352, 426, 447, 491.

1 These are the only cases in which a minimum term of imprisonment is

prescribed.

punish

ment.

(1) which may extend to one month: secs. 160, 172-176, 184, 185, 187, 188, 334, 341, 358, 490, 492.

(m) which may extend to twenty-four hours: sec. 510.

V. FORFEITURE

(a) all the offender's property may be forfeited: sec. 62.

(b) all the offender's property must be forfeited: secs. 121, 122.

(c) the rents and profits of the offender's whole estate which accrue during his transportation or imprisonment may be forfeited: sec. 62.

(d) specific property may be forfeited: secs. 126, 127.

(e) specific property must be forfeited: sec. 169.

VI. FINE

(1) the only punishment-(a) unlimited: secs. 155, 156.

(b) limited to Rs. 1000: secs. 154, 294 A.

(c) limited to Rs. 500: secs. 137, 278.

(d) limited to Rs. 200: secs. 283, 290.

(2) an additional punishment unlimited: secs. 115, 118, 123, 124, 126134, 181, 193, 194, 201, 209, 211-214, 216, 221, 222, 225, 226, 231-235, 237-240, 242-253, 255-259, 302, 304-307, 309, 311-314, 316, 325-331, 333, 344, 347, 348, 363-367, 369-373, 376, 377, 380-382, 386-389, 392-396, 399-402, 404, 407-409, 412, 413, 420, 435-440, 449–460, 466-469, 472–477, 484, 493-496.

(3) an alternative punishment, the amount being proportioned to the value of the object of the offence: sec. 254.

(4) an alternative or additional punishment

(a) unlimited: secs. 116, 117, 124 A, 125, 135, 136, 138, 143-145, 147, 148, 151-153, 157, 158, 162–170, 177, 189, 190, 201-208, 210-220, 222225 A, 225 B, 229, 260-267, 269, 270, 271, 281, 291–298, 304, 304 A, 308, 315, 317, 318, 324, 332, 343, 353-356, 374, 379, 384, 385, 403, 406, 411, 414, 417-419, 421-424, 426–434, 461, 462, 465, 482, 483, 485-487, 489, 497, 498, 500–502, 504-506, 508, 509, 511.

(b) limited to Rs. 2000: sec. 335.

(c) limited to Rs. 1000: secs. 172-179, 182, 183, 188, 228, 272-276, 279,

280, 282, 284-289, 323, 338, 342, 357, 448.

(d) limited to Rs. 500: secs. 140, 172–176, 180, 184, 186, 187, 277, 334,

337, 341, 352, 447.

(e) limited to Rs. 250: sec. 336.

(f) limited to Rs. 200: secs. 171, 185, 187, 188, 358, 491.

(g) limited to Rs. 100: secs 160, 490.

(h) limited to Rs. 10: sec. 510.

The

(i) proportioned to the value of the object of the offence: secs. 241, 492. Theories of The framers of the Code do not seem to have troubled themselves much about the rival theories of punishment, respecting which German jurists and philosophers have written so copiously. deterrent theory is certainly followed in the section about transportation and in the Whipping Act; the reformatory theory in section 56, which incorporates by reference the Penal Servitude Act; the compensatory in the sections relating to fines coupled with the provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure, section 545. The penalties of forfeiture and imprisonment are inflicted as means of security.

PART III. OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE AND THE PUBLIC.

This division of the Code deals with offences committed directly against the State or community generally. It comprises eleven chapters, which deal respectively with offences relating to the following subjects:-the State; the Army and Navy; Public Tranquillity; Public Servants and their Lawful Authority; Evidence and Public Justice; Coin and Government Stamps; Weights and Measures; Religious Feeling; Public Morality; Public Health, Safety, and Decency.

State.

Chapter VI deals with offences against the State. It provides Offences for waging war against the Crown without any distinction as to against the British subjects or otherwise (sec. 121); for conspiring to commit such offence, even though no act or illegal omission has taken place in pursuance of the conspiracy (sec. 121 A), for collecting arms etc. with the intention of committing it, and for concealing with intent to facilitate its commission; and it makes the abetting of hostilities against the Government a separate offence, instead of leaving it to the operation of the general rules laid down in the chapter on Abetment. Those rules would apply to the case of a person residing in British India who should abet a subject of the British Government in waging war against that Government, but they would not reach the case of a person residing in British India who should abet the waging of war by any foreign prince against the British Government.

The framers of the Code agreed with the great body of legislators in thinking that, though in general a person who has been a party to a criminal design which has not been carried into effect ought not to be punished so severely as if that design had been carried into effect, yet an exception to this rule must be made with respect to high offences against the State: for state-crimes, and especially the most heinous and formidable state-crimes, have this peculiarity, that if they are successfully committed the criminal is almost always secure from punishment. The murderer is in greater danger after his victim is despatched than before. The thief is in greater danger after the purse is taken than before. But the rebel is out of danger as soon as he has subverted the Government. As the penal law is impotent against a successful rebel, it is consequently necessary that it should be made strong and sharp against the first beginnings of rebellion, against treasonable designs which have been carried no further than plots and preparations.' They therefore did not think it expedient to leave such plots and preparations to the ordinary law of abetment.

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