Report No. 39
6. Classification of offences punishable with transportation for life.-
The various offences under the Indian Penal Code, for which transportation for life was the only punishment or one of the permissible punishments, may be classified as follows:-
(a) offences punishable only with transportation for life, like being a thug (section 311) and extortion by threat of accusation of unnatural offence (section 388);1
(b) offences punishable with death or transportation for life, like murder (section 302) and waging war against the Government of India (section 121);
(c) offences punishable with death or transportation for life or rigorous imprisonment for a term (usually up to 10 years), like dacoity with murder (section 396) and fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of a capital offence if an innocent person is convicted and executed in consequence thereof (section 194);
(d) offences punishable with death or transportation for life or imprisonment of either description of a term (usually up to 10 years)
(e) offences punishable with transportation for life or rigorous imprisonment for a term (usually up to 10 years), like kidnapping in order to murder (section 364), dacoity (section 395) and house trespass in order to commit an offence punishable with death (section 449);
(f) offences punishable with transportation for life or imprisonment of either description for a term, like intentional omission by a public servant to apprehend a person under sentence of death (section 222) and rape (section 376).
1. Section 226 (replealed in 1955) provided that unlawful return from transportation was punishable with transportation for life and the offender was liable also to rigorous imprisonment upto three year before such transportation.