Report No. 156

Chapter X

Abduction Incidental to Hijacking

10.01. The Indian Penal Code has been spoken of as a model piece of legislation as the premier Code of Criminal law, and as the monument of the great genius of Lord Macaulay under whose supervision it was constructed. The Code deals with territorial as well as extra-territorial crimes.

Section 4 extends the Code to extra-territorial offences. Accordingly, the provisions of the Code apply also to any offence committed by any person on any ship or aircraft registered in India wherever it may be.

To deal with the problem of "Piracy" which was very common in the last Century, two special legislations were enacted namely:-

(i) Admiralty Offences Act, 1894; and

(ii) The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.

But the framers of the Code never thought about the crime of "Air-Piracy" which is commonly known as "Air-Hijacking" now a days. So the Code confines to the crimes of the abduction of person only but not the abduction of the aircraft or vehicles. Hence a need has been felt to include the crime of "Air-Hijacking" in the Code.