THEORIES OF PUNISHMENT AND
PUNISHMENT UNDER IPC
Term
s
Crime – Crime denotes an unlawful act punishable by
state. An act should violate a law to be considered a
crime.
Punishment - The imposition of hardship in response
to misconduct
Conditions commonly considered necessary properly
to describe an action as punishment are that
it is imposed by a recognized authority,
it involves some loss to the supposed offender,
it is in response to an offence and
the person to whom the loss is imposed should be deemed
Some aspects of Punishment
Need of Punishment
Negative reward
Maintain supremacy of the law
Ends of Punishment
Greatest happiness of the greatest
number of people – Consequentialist
approach
Justice
Reformation of the criminal
Theories of
For safe, Punishment
orderly, peaceful and prosperous society
to exist and flourish – the following tools of theory
are found to be good guides:
1. Deterrent Theory
2. Preventive Theory
3. Retributive Theory
4. Reformative Theory
5. Expiatory Theory
6. Multiple
Approach Theory
Deterrent
Not Theory
only to prevent the
wrongdoer from doing a wrong,
but also to make him an
example for others, calculated
to curb criminal tendency in
others.
This theory lives even today in
some countries.
“Tooth for Tooth, Eye for Eye, Limb for Limb and
Nail for Nail” – principle of this theory
Found to be inhuman and barbaric
Modern human rights philosophy condemns this
cruel concept.
Reformative
“Condemn theTheory
Sin, not the Sinner” – Mahatma Gandhi.
Reformation process is like a surgeon operating on a
person to remove the pain.
It is a craft or skill in bringing back the tainted and
condemned culprits to national mainstream and civil
society, as meaningful citizens.
Expiatory
Theory
“To pay for the sin committed”
Offender to serve the victims and their
dependents to compensate the
deprivation.
Held impracticable & being too
idealistic.
Experimentation of this theory is too
expensive in terms of public safety and
Multiple Approach
Theory
Application of any single theory may not
render complete justice
The aforesaid theories are not mutually
exclusive
Hence judicious combination of theories is
the latest approach.
Punishments - Indian Penal
Code
Ss- 53 to 75 of I.P.C. (Ch.III) refer to graded
system of punishments
1. Death
2. Imprisonment for Life
3. Imprisonment – Rigorous and Simple
4. Forfeiture of property
5. Fine
In addition to the above, Ss-73 & 74 refer to solitary
confinement.
Death Penalty
Death penalty is also called the capital
punishment.
Under this punishment, a person is hanged till he
dies.
The infliction of death sentence or taking away the
offenders life by authority as a punishment for an
offence is capital punishment or death penalty.
In India it is awarded in rarest of rare cases.
Case laws
Bachan Singh Vs the State of Punjab (AIR 1980 SC 898,1980)
Upheld the validity of the death penalty, but the court restricted the
provision of the death penalty in rarest of rare cases only. If the case
falls under this theory, then capital punishment may be given.
Jagmohan Singh Vs State of Uttar Pradesh (1973 AIR 947,1973
SCR (2)541)
The death penalty is unconstitutional and hence invalid as a
punishment. The Supreme Court held the death penalty as valid. It
held that deprivation of life is constitutionally lawful if that is done
according to the procedure set by law.
Life Imprisonment
Imprisonment for life means imprisonment for the whole
of the remaining life period of the convicted person's
natural life.
According to Sec 57 imprisonment for life shall be
reckoned as equivalent to imprisonment for 20 year's.
But only for calculating fractions of terms of punishment
imprisonment for life shall be reckoned as equivalent to
imprisonment for 20yrs.
CASE LAWS
Bhagirath And Ors Vs.Delhi Administration (1985 AIR 1050)
The supreme court of India defined imprisonment for life as imprisonment for the
remainder of the natural life of the convict. If life imprisonment is given to a
person, he shall stay in the prison for a minimum of 14 years and the maximum is
the rest of his life.
Naib Singh V.State of Punjab And Ors. (AIR 1986 SC 2192)
The supreme court of India cleared the confusion with the duration of life
imprisonment and section 55 of IPC. The court held that a life convict cannot
claim for his release after serving 14 years in prison. Life imprisonment continues
until the death of the prisoner. The only exception to this is commutation and
remission.
Imprisonment
Imprisonment means taking away a person's freedom
and putting him in prison.
According to Sec 53 of the IPC, there are two kinds of
punishments:
Simple: it is a punishment in which the offender is
confined to jail only and not subjected to any hard labour
Contd…
Rigorous:
In this case the offender is put to hard labour such as
grinding corn, digging, cutting wood etc. The
following are some offences which are punishable
with rigorous imprisonment
FINE
Fine can be simply defined as monetary punishment.
Almost all the sections related with awarding
punishment includes fine as punishment.
However section 63 says where sum is expressed to
which a fine may extend, the amount of fine to which
the offender is liable is unlimited, but shall not be
excessive.
Contd….
Forfeiture Of Property
Forfeiture implies the loss of property of the accused.
Under this punishment, the state seizes the property of
a criminal.
it is the result of the wrong or default caused by the
person. The property forfeited may be movable or
immovable.
