Report No. 29

4. Reference to Law Commission.-The Government1 decided, that the matter should be considered by the Law Commission, and referred the above proposal of the Santhanam Committee to this Commission2, as the revision of the Indian Penal Code was under the Commission's consideration. That is the genesis of this Report. In view of the importance of the matter, we decided to deal with it separately from the general revision of the Indian Penal Code.

1. Ministry of Home Affairs.

2. Para. 3, supra.

5. Material studied.-In order to facilitate our consideration of the subject, we have studied the various special enactments relating to the offences in question1, the penal laws of several other countries2, and the literature available on the subject, including the Reports of several Committees3. A study of the judicial decisions relating to these offences was also made, in order to find out whether the existing provisions relating to these offences are not adequate4.

The proposals of the Santhanam Committee were circulated by us for comments to State Governments and High Courts, and several other persons and bodies. We have considered each one of these comments in detail. The important points made in some of the comments will be dealt with in the Report under the relevant categories5.

1. See Appendices 1 to 8.

2. Particularly, England, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States of America, Soviet Russia, Hungary, Norway, France and Argentina.

3. See Appendices 12, 13, 14 and 15.

4. A part of the material studied by us will be found in some of the Appendices to this Report.

1. See paras. 38, 76, 96, 97, 120, 125, 136, 138, 144, 164, and 168, infra.