๐ What is the law of punishment in India?
In India, punishment is mainly governed by:
✅ The Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) — defines offences and prescribes punishments.
✅ The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC) — lays down the procedural rules for investigation, trial, and sentencing.
✅ Special Acts — like NDPS Act, POCSO Act, Prevention of Corruption Act, etc., which have specific punishments.
⚖ Objectives of punishment
Punishment in Indian law serves several purposes:
-
Deterrence — to deter the offender and the public.
-
Reformative — to rehabilitate the offender.
-
Retributive — to give deserved suffering.
-
Preventive — to stop the offender from repeating.
-
Compensatory — sometimes to compensate victims.
๐จ Types of punishments under IPC (Section 53)
The IPC lists five main kinds of punishments:
-
Death penalty — For rarest of rare cases (e.g., murder, terrorism).
-
Life imprisonment — Imprisonment for the remainder of natural life (unless remitted).
-
Imprisonment — Either rigorous (with hard labor) or simple.
-
Forfeiture of property — Property seized by the state.
-
Fine — Monetary penalty.
๐ Judicial discretion
The court decides punishment based on:
-
Nature and gravity of the offence.
-
Motive, manner, and consequences.
-
Past conduct or criminal history.
-
Possibility of reforming the offender.
For some offences, minimum punishments are prescribed, but for many, courts have discretion within the range provided.
๐ก Key principles
-
Proportionality — punishment must fit the crime.
-
No ex post facto law (Article 20(1)) — no punishment can be imposed retrospectively.
-
No double jeopardy (Article 20(2)) — can’t be punished twice for the same offence.
-
Presumption of innocence — until proven guilty.
No comments:
Post a Comment