It has been suggested that Section 6 of the Indian Penal Code be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2011.

The Indian Penal Code, 1860
Citation	Act No. 45 of 1860
Territorial extent	Whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir
Enacted by	Parliament of India
Date enacted	6 October 1860
Date assented to	6 October 1860
Date commenced	6 October 1860

Indian Penal Code (IPC, Hindi: भारतीय दण्ड संहिता) is the main criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code, intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. It was drafted in 1860 and came into force in colonial India during the British Raj in 1862. It has since been amended several times and is now supplemented by other criminal provisions.

After independence, Indian Penal Code was inherited by Pakistan (now called Pakistan Penal Code) and Bangladesh, formerly part of British India. It was also adopted wholesale by the British colonial authorities in Burma, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, and remains the basis of the criminal codes in those countries.

History[link]

During the Moghul rule courts administered the "Mohammaden" criminal law to the exclusion of Hindu law. Islamic law gave way to English criminal law with the increase of British influence in the Indian subcontinent. Before 1860, The English criminal law, as modified by several acts was administered in the Presidency-Towns of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.

The draft of the Indian Penal Code was prepared by the First Law Commission, chaired by Thomas Babington Macaulay. Its basis is the law of England freed from superfluities, technicalities and local peculiarities. 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 it was presented to the Legislative Council in 1856 but it did not take its place on the Indian statute book until a generation later, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The draft then underwent a very careful revision at the hands of Sir Barnes Peacock, Chief Justice, and the puisne Judges of the Calcutta Supreme Court who were members of the Legislative Council, and was passed into law on 6 October 1860.^[1] The Code came into operation on 1st January, 1862. Unfortunately, Macaulay did not survive to see his masterpiece come into force, having died near the end of 1859.

Objective[link]

The objective of this Act is to provide a general penal code for India.^[2] Though not an initial objective, the Act does not repeal the penal laws which were in force at the time of coming into force in India. This was so because the Code does not contain all the offences and it was possible that same offences might have still been left out of the Code, which were not intended to be exempted from penal consequences. Though this Code consolidates the whole of the law on the subject and is exhaustive on the matters in respect of which it declares the law, many more penal statutes governing various offences have been created in addition to the code.

Structure[link]

Indian Penal Code, 1860, sub-divided into twenty three chapters, comprises five hundred and eleven sections. The code starts with an introduction, provides explanations and exceptions used in the code, and covers a wide range of offences. The Outline is presented in the following table:

Reforms[link]

• The Section 377 had been interpreted to suppress the rights of sexual minorities in India. This section has been termed as the biggest hurdle in dealing with control of AIDS in the country.^{[citation needed]} But 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 adult males. This was incorrectly termed by many people^[who?] including reputed media houses^[which?] as amendment of this section which it was not. The case is pending in Supreme Court since then.
• Section 309 metes out punishment for an unsuccessful attempt to suicide. In September 2011, Government of India indicated that it is considering to amend this section and to decriminalize suicide attempts. The Government was responding to a PIL filed in the Supreme Court.^[4]

In 2003, the Malimath Committee submitted its report recommending several far-reaching penal reforms including separation of investigation and prosecution (similar to the CPS in the UK) to streamline criminal justice system.^[5] The essence of the report was a perceived need for shift from an adversarial to an inquisitorial criminal justice system, based on the Continental European systems.

Acclaim[link]

The Code is universally acknowledged as a cogently drafted code, ahead of its time. It has substantially survived for over 150 years in several jurisdictions without major amendments. Nicholas Phillips, Justice of Supreme Court of United Kingdom applauded the efficacy and relevance of IPC while commemorating 150 years of IPC.^[6] Modern crimes involving technology unheard of during Macaulay's time fit easily within the Code^{[citation needed]} mainly because of the broadness of the Code's drafting.

Popular references[link]

Some references to specific sections (called dafa'a in Hindi-Urdu, دفعہ or दफ़आ/दफ़ा) of the IPC have entered popular speech in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. For instance, conmen are referred to as 420s (chaar-sau-bees in Hindi-Urdu)) after Section 420 which covers cheating.^[7] Similarly, specific reference to section 302 ("tazīrāt-e-Hind dafā tīn-sau-do ke tehet sazā-e-maut", "punishment of death under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code"), which covers the death penalty, have become part of common knowledge in the region due to repeated mentions of it in Bollywood movies and regional pulp literature.^[8][9] "Dafa 302" was also the name of a Bollywood movie released in 1975.^[10] Similarly, "Shree 420" was the name of a 1955 Bollywood movie starring Raj Kapoor.^[11]

See also[link]

• Indian Evidence Act
• Category:Indian Penal Code Sections

References[link]

• http://www.indianlawcds.com/Criminalbareacts/IPC.htm
• http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/IndianPenalCode/indianpenalcode.htm

External links[link]

• Indian Penal Code(PDF)
• Constitution of India

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

A criminal code (or penal code) is a document which compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences which are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties which might be imposed for these offences and some general provisions (such as definitions and prohibitions on retroactive prosecution).^[1]

Criminal codes are relatively common in civil law jurisdictions, which tend to build legal systems around codes and principles which are relatively abstract and apply them on a case by case basis. Conversely they are rare in common law jurisdictions.

The proposed introduction of a criminal code in England and Wales was a significant project of the Law Commission from 1968 to 2008. Due to the strong tradition of precedent in the jurisdiction and consequently the large number of binding judgements and ambiguous 'common law offences', as well as the often inconsistent nature of English law - the creation of a satisfactory code became very difficult. The project was officially abandoned in 2008 although as of 2009 it has been revived.^[2]

In the United States a Model Penal Code exists which is not itself law but which provides the basis for the criminal law of many states. Individual states often choose to make use of criminal codes which are often based, to a varying extent on the model code.^[3] Title 18 of the United States Code is the criminal code for federal crimes.^[4] However, Title 18 does not contain many of the general provisions concerning criminal law that are found in the criminal codes of many so-called "civil law" countries.

Criminal codes are generally supported for their introduction of consistency to legal systems and for making the criminal law more accessible to laypeople.^[5] A code may help avoid a chilling effect where legislation and case law appears to be either inaccessible or beyond comprehension to non-lawyers. Alternatively critics have argued that codes are too rigid and that they fail to provide enough flexibility for the law to be effective.

The term "penal code" (code pénal) derives from the French Penal Code of 1791.

By country[link]

• Australian criminal codes (The states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia do not use codes; the Commonwealth is in transition.)
• Criminal Code of Belarus
• Penal code of Brazil
• British Virgin Islands Criminal Code
• Criminal Code of Canada
• Criminal Code of Chile
• Danish penalty law
• English Criminal Code, a draft has existed since 1989 but, though debated since 1818, has never been enacted.
• Criminal Code of Finland
• French Penal Code
• German Criminal Code
• Indian Penal Code
• Iranian Criminal Code
• Iraqi Penal Code
• Italian Penal Code
• Criminal Code of Japan
• Criminal Code of Malta, enacted in 1854.
• Mexican Penal Code, enacted on August 14th, 1931.
• Pakistan Penal Code
• Revised Penal Code of the Philippines
• Polish Penal Code
• Penal Code (Singapore)
• Criminal Code of Russia
• Criminal Code of Ukraine
• Title 18 of the United States Code
• Model Penal Code by the American Law Institute

Penal Codes of some member countries of the Organization of American States may be found in the public portion of the OAS website, through links from http://www.oas.org/juridico/MLA/en/index.html. However, the extent to which codes are kept current is unclear, and not all national codes are available. Some countries include special criminal statutes not in their Codes, including statutes on terrorism, drug trafficking and public corruption.

See also[link]

• Codification

Notes[link]

This article about a criminal law topic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Peneral (originally Peñeraal of a Spanish origin) is a town in south Trinidad. It lies south of San Fernando and Debe, and north of Siparia. Originally a rice and cocoa producing area, Penal has grown into an important town in the past few years and is now a desirable place for corporate expansion. The population is 12,281 people.^[1]

Penal is largely considered to be dominated by the East Indian descendants, more commonly referred to as Indians. The heart of Penal contains many businesses while the outskirts focus on agricultural development. Commercially, Penal has a police station, branches of two banks (Scotiabank and Republic Bank), health facilities, photo studios, fast food restaurants, a gas station and clothing stores as well as many schools, thus providing reasonably well for its populace.

Penal plays a major role in the energy supply to the nation's populace. Petrotrin, the national oil company, has a major sub-unit in Clarke Road and the National Gas Company has many gas lines running through Penal that links the gas fields of the South East Coast and the industrial estates. One of the countries three major power generating plants owned by Powergen Ltd is located at Syne Village to the west of Penal. This area is also known for the High Schools located in the Penal-Debe area. It is one of the areas in Trinidad that has the most schools. Penal is also known for the Doubles, Roti and Aloo-Pies which will always be packed with costumers for dilicious Cuisine. If you want culture Penal is one of the places to be.

Penal is administered by the Penal-Debe Regional Corporation.

References[link]

Coordinates: 10°10′N 61°28′W / 10.167°N 61.467°W / 10.167; -61.467

This Trinidad and Tobago location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e