The Indian Penal Code, 1860
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The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established in 1834 under the Charter Act of 1833 under the chairmanship of Thomas Babington Macaulay.[1][2][3] It came into force in British India during the early British Raj period in 1862. However, it did not apply automatically in the Princely states, which had their own courts and legal systems until the 1940s. The Code has since been amended several times and is now supplemented by other criminal provisions.
After the partition of the British Indian Empire, the Indian Penal Code was inherited by India and Pakistan, where it continues independently as the Pakistan Penal Code. After the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, the code continued in force there. The Code was also adopted by the British colonial authorities in Colonial Burma, Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), the Straits Settlements (now part of Malaysia), Singapore and Brunei, and remains the basis of the criminal codes in those countries.
The draft of the Indian Penal Code was prepared by the First Law Commission, chaired by Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1834 and was submitted to Governor-General of India Council in 1835. Based on a simplified codification of the law of England at the time, elements were also derived from the Napoleonic Code and from Edward Livingston's Louisiana Civil Code of 1825. The first final draft of the Indian Penal Code was submitted to the Governor-General of India in Council in 1837, but the draft was again revised. The drafting was completed in 1850 and the Code was presented to the Legislative Council in 1856, but it did not take its place on the statute book of British India until a generation later, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The draft then underwent a very careful revision at the hands of Barnes Peacock, who later became the first Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, and the future puisne judges of the Calcutta High Court, who were members of the Legislative Council, and was passed into law on 6 October 1860.[4] The Code came into operation on 1 January 1862. Macaulay did not survive to see the penal code he wrote come into force, having died near the end of 1859. The code came into force in Jammu and Kashmir on 31 October 2019, by virtue of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, and replaced the state's Ranbir Penal Code.[5]
Structure[edit]
The Indian Penal Code of 1860, sub-divided into 23 chapters, comprises 511 sections. The Code starts with an introduction, provides explanations and exceptions used in it, and covers a wide range of offences. The Outline is presented in the following table:[7]
Chapter | Sections covered | Classification of offences |
---|---|---|
Chapter I | Sections 1 to 5 | Introduction |
Chapter II | Sections 6 to 52 | General Explanations |
Chapter III | Sections 53 to 75 | Of Punishments |
Chapter IV | Sections 76 to 106 | General Exceptions of the Right of Private Defence (Sections 96 to 106) |
Chapter V | Sections 107 to 120 | Of Abetment |
Chapter VA | Sections 120A to 120B | Criminal Conspiracy |
Chapter VI | Sections 121 to 130 | Of Offences against the State |
Chapter VII | Sections 131 to 140 | Of Offences relating to the Army, Navy and Air Force |
Chapter VIII | Sections 141 to 160 | Of Offences against the Public Tranquillity |
Chapter IX | Sections 161 to 171 | Of Offences by or relating to Public Servants |
Chapter IXA | Sections 171A to 171I | Of Offences Relating to Elections |
Chapter X | Sections 172 to 190 | Of Contempts of Lawful Authority of Public Servants |
Chapter XI | Sections 191 to 229 | Of False Evidence and Offences against Public Justice |
Chapter XII | Sections 230 to 263 | Of Offences relating to coin and Government Stamps |
Chapter XIII | Sections 264 to 267 | Of Offences relating to Weight and Measures |
Chapter XIV | Sections 268 to 294 | Of Offences affecting the Public Health, Safety, Convenience, Decency and Morals. |
Chapter XV | Sections 295 to 298 | Of Offences relating to Religion |
Chapter XVI | Sections 299 to 377 | Of Offences affecting the Human Body.
|
Chapter XVII | Sections 378 to 462 | Of Offences Against Property
|
Chapter XVIII | Section 463 to 489 -E | Offences relating to Documents and Property Marks
|
Chapter XIX | Sections 490 to 492 | Of the Criminal Breach of Contracts of Service |
Chapter XX | Sections 493 to 498 | Of Offences related to marriage |
Chapter XXA | Sections 498A | Of Cruelty by Husband or Relatives of Husband |
Chapter XXI | Sections 499 to 502 | Of Defamation |
Chapter XXII | Sections 503 to 510 | Of Criminal intimidation, Insult and Annoyance |
Chapter XXIII | Section 511 | Of Attempts to Commit Offences |
A detailed list of all IPC laws which include above is here.[8]
Whoever, voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment of life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offence described in this section.[9]
- Section 377 The Delhi High Court on 2 July 2009 gave a liberal interpretation to this section and laid down that this section can not be used to punish an act of consensual sexual intercourse between two same sex individuals.[10]
- On 11 December 2013, Supreme Court of India over-ruled the judgment given by Delhi High court in 2009 and clarified that "Section 377, which holds same-sex relations unnatural, does not suffer from unconstitutionality". The Bench said: "We hold that Section 377 does not suffer from ... unconstitutionality and the declaration made by the Division Bench of the High Court is legally unsustainable." It, however, said: "Notwithstanding this verdict, the competent legislature shall be free to consider the desirability and propriety of deleting Section 377 from the statute book or amend it as per the suggestion made by Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati."[11]
- On 8 January 2018, the Supreme Court agreed to reconsider its 2013 decision and after much deliberation agreed to decriminalise the parts of Section 377 that criminalised same sex relations on 6 September 2018.[12] The judgement of Suresh Kumar Koushal v. Naz Foundation is overruled.[13]
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