Report No. 42

"Chapter III

Punishments

7. Substitution of new Chapter for Chapter III.-

For Chapter III of the Code, the following Chapter shall be substituted, namely.-

24. Punishments.- The punishments to which offenders are liable under the provisions of this Code are

(i) death;

(ii) imprisonment for life;

(iii) imprisonment for a term, which may b.-

(a) rigorous, that is, with hard labour, or

(b) simple, that is, with light labour;

(iv) forfeiture of property;

(v) fine.

25. Minors not to be sentenced to death.- The sentence of death shall not be passed on a person convicted of a capital offence if at the time of committing the offence he was under eighteen years of age and death is not the only punishment provided by law for the offence.

25A. Construction of reference to transportation.-(1) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2) and sub-section (3), any reference to 'transportation for life' in any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument or order having effect by virtue of any such law or of any enactment repealed shall be construed as a reference to 'imprisonment for life.

(2) In every case in which a sentence of transportation for a term has been passed before the commencement of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 1955, the offender shall be dealt with in the same manner as if sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for the same term.

(3) Any reference to transportation for a term or to transportation for any shorter term (by whatever name called) in am other law for the time being in force shall be deemed to have been omitted.

(4) Any reference to 'transportation' in any other law for the time being in force shall.-

(a) if the expression means transportation for life, be construed as a reference to imprisonment for life;

(b) if the expression means transportation for any shorter term, be deemed to have been omitted.

26. Imprisonment for life to be rigorous.- Imprisonment for life shall be rigorous.

27. Fractions of terms of punishment.- In calculating fractions of terms of punishment, imprisonment for life shall be reckoned as equivalent to rigorous imprisonment for twenty years.

28. Imprisonment of either description.- In every case in which an offender is punishable with imprisonment which may be of either description, it shall be competent to the Court which sentences such offender to direct in the sentence that such imprisonment shall be wholly rigorous, or that such imprisonment shall be wholly simple, or that any part of such imprisonment shall be rigorous and the rest simple.

29. Order to pay compensation out of fine to victim of offence.- Whenever a person is convicted of an offence punishable under Chapter XVI, Chapter XVII or Chapter XXI of this Code or of an abetment of such offence or of a criminal conspiracy to commit such offence and is sentenced to a fine, whether with or without imprisonment, and the Court is of opinion that compensation is recoverable by civil suit by any person for loss or injury caused to him by that offence, it shall be competent to the Court to direct by the sentence that the whole or any part of the fine realised from the offender shall be paid by way of compensation to such person for the said loss or injury.

Explanation.- Expenses properly incurred by such person in the prosecution of the case shall be deemed part of the loss caused to him by the offence.

30. Amount offine.- Where no sum is expressed to which a fine may extend, the amount of fine to which the offender is liable_ is unlimited, but shall not be excessive.

31. Sentence of imprisonment for non-payment of fine.- (1) In every case in which an offender is sentenced to a fine, it shall be competent to the Court to direct by the sentence that, in default of payment of the fine, the offender shall undergo imprisonment for a certain term.

(2) If the offence be punishable with fine only, such imprisonment shall be simple, and the term thereof shall not excee.-

(a) two months, when the fine does not exceed one hundred rupees,

(b) four months, when the fine does not exceed two hundred rupees, and

(c) six months, in any other case.

(3) If the offence be punishable with imprisonment or fine, or with imprisonment and fine.-

(a) the imprisonment in default of payment of the fine may be of any description to which the offender might have been sentenced for the offence;

(b) the term of such imprisonment shall not exceed one-fourth of the maximum term of imprisonment provided for the offence; and

(c) such imprisonment shall be in addition to the imprisonment. If any, to which he may have been sentenced for the offence, or to which he may be liable under a commutation of a sentence.

32. Termination of imprisonment on payment or realisation of fine.- (1) Imprisonment imposed in default of payment of a fine shall terminate whenever that fine is either paid, or realised by process of law, in full.

(2) Whenever a part of the fine is paid or is realised by process of law, the term of imprisonment fixed in default of payment shall be deemed to be reduced by such number of days as bears to the total number of days in that term the same proportion as the amount of fine paid or realised bears to the amount of fine imposed, and if, at that time, imprisonment in default of payment is being suffered, it shall terminate on the expiration of the reduced term or, if the reduced term has previously expired, it shall terminate forthwith.

(3) In calculating the reduction required under sub-section (2), any fraction of a day less than one-half shall be left out of account and any other fraction shall be counted as one day.

33. Limitation for levy of fine.- No proceedings for realisation of the fine or of any part thereof which remains unpaid, shall be commenced.-

(a) at any time after the expiry of six years from the passing of the sentence, Or

(b) if, under the sentence, the offender is liable to imprisonment for a longer period than six years, at any time after the expiry of that period.

34. Death not to discharge property from liability.- The death of the offender does not discharge from the liability for recovery of fine any property which would after his death be legally liable for his debts.

35. Punishment of offence made up of parts.- Where anything which is an offence is made up of parts, any of which parts is itself an offence of the same kind, the offender shall not, unless expressly so provided, be punished separately for such parts.

Illustrations

(a) A beats Z twenty times with a stick. His offence of voluntarily causing hurt to Z is made up of the twenty strokes given, each of which is itself an offence of voluntarily causing hurt. A is liable only to one punishment for the whole beating.

(b) While A is beating Z, Y intervenes, and A intentionally strikes Y. As this is no part of the acts whereby A voluntarily causes hurt to Z, A is liable to one punishment for voluntarily causing hurt to Z and to another for voluntarily causing hurt to Y.

36. Punishment of offence made up of several offences.- (1) Where an act constitutes an offence under two or more enactments, but the offences are the same, the offender shall not be punished for more than one of such offences.

(2) Where an act constitutes an offence under two or more enactments and the offences are not the same or

Where several acts, of which one or more than one would by itself or themselves constitute an offence, constitute, when combined, a different offence. the offender may be punished separately for each of such offences, but shall not be punished in the aggregate with a more severe punishment than could be awarded for any one of such offences.

37. Punishment where judgment in alternative.- In all cases in which judgment is given in the alternative and a person is guilty of one of several offences specified in the judgment and if the same punishment is not provided for all of them, the offender shall be punished for the offence for which the lowest punishment is provided.

38. Enhanced punishment for certain offences after previous conviction.- Whoever, having been convicted by a Court in India of an offence punishable under this Code with imprisonment of either description for a term of three years or upwards and sentenced to imprisonment on such conviction, commits, within three years from the date of his final release from prison after serving that sentence, any offence punishable under this Code with like imprisonment for the like term, shall be subject for every such subsequent offence to imprisonment for life, or to imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to fourteen years.

39. Public censure for certain offences after previous conviction.- (1) When any person, having been convicted by a Court in India of an offence specified in sub-section (3), is convicted of a like offence, it shall be competent to the Court before which the conviction takes place, to cause the offender's name and place of residence, the offence and the punishment imposed to be published at the offender's expense in such newspapers or in such other manner as the Court may direct.

(2) The expenses of such publication shall be recoverable from the offender in the same manner as a fine.

(3) The offences to which sub-section (1) applies are any offences punishable under Chapter XII, Chapter XIII, sections 272 to 276, sections 383 to 389, sections 403 to 409, sections 415 to 420 or Chapter XVIII of this Code."