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Indian Penal Code

 

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Indian Penal Code



 
 
Indian Penal Code (IPC, Hindi
Hindi

Standard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a Standard language register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 official languages of India, and is used, along with English language, for administration of the central government....
: ?????? ???? ??????)is an document that covers almost all the crime happening in the society. It is a British colonial legislation in India in 1860.Now it provides a penal code
Penal code

A penal code is a portion of a state's laws defining crimes and specifying the punishment. Other parts of the laws of a given state can define crimes and punishments, such as a traffic code or a Building code, or laws addressing natural environmental resources by regulating hunting, fishing, or forestry....
 for all of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 including Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost States and territories of India of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayas mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the People's Republic of China to the northeast, the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and Pakistani-administered territories of Kashmir, namely Azad Kashm...
, where it was renamed the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). The code applies to any offence committed by an Indian Citizen anywhere and on any Indian registered ship or aircraft (This law does not however apply to the armed forces or supersede any other acts).






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Indian Penal Code (IPC, Hindi
Hindi

Standard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a Standard language register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 official languages of India, and is used, along with English language, for administration of the central government....
: ?????? ???? ??????)is an document that covers almost all the crime happening in the society. It is a British colonial legislation in India in 1860.Now it provides a penal code
Penal code

A penal code is a portion of a state's laws defining crimes and specifying the punishment. Other parts of the laws of a given state can define crimes and punishments, such as a traffic code or a Building code, or laws addressing natural environmental resources by regulating hunting, fishing, or forestry....
 for all of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 including Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost States and territories of India of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayas mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the People's Republic of China to the northeast, the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and Pakistani-administered territories of Kashmir, namely Azad Kashm...
, where it was renamed the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). The code applies to any offence committed by an Indian Citizen anywhere and on any Indian registered ship or aircraft (This law does not however apply to the armed forces or supersede any other acts). The draft of the Indian Penal Code was prepared by the First Law Commission. It was chaired by Lord Macaulay. Its basis is the law of England freed from superfluities, technicalities and local peculiarities. Suggestions were also derived from the French Penal Code and from Livingstone's Code of Louisiana. The draft underwent a very careful revision at the hands of Sir Barnes Peacock, Chief Justice, and puisne Judges of the Calcutta Supreme Court
Supreme court

A supreme court, also called a court of last resort or high court, is in some jurisdictions the highest court within that jurisdiction's court system, whose rulings are not subject to further review by another court....
 who were members of the Legislative Council
Legislative Council

A Legislative Council is the name given to the legislatures, or one of the chambers of the legislature of many nations and colonies.A member of the Legislative Council is commonly referred to as an MLC....
, and was passed into law in 1860, unfortunately Macaulay did not survive to see his masterpiece enacted into a law.

Though it is principally the work of a man who had hardly held a brief, and whose time was devoted to politics
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
 and literature
Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
, yet it universally acknowledged to be a monument of codification and an everlasting memorial to the high juristic attainments of its distinguished author. For example even cyber crimes can be punished under the code.

Indian Penal Code came into force in 1862 (during the British Raj
British Raj

British Raj primarily refers to the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule....
) and is regularly amended, such as to include section 498-A. The code contains several sections related to dowry law in India
Dowry law in India

Payment of a dowry, gift — often financial, has a long history in many parts of the world. In India, the payment of a dowry was prohibited in 1961 under Indian civil law and subsequently by Sections 304B and 498a of the Indian Penal Code were enacted to make it easier for the wife to seek redress from potential harassment by the husban...
 and has a total of 511 sections covering various aspects of the Criminal Law
Criminal law

The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential for unique and often severe impositions as punishment for failure to comply....
. The nature of these have led to allegations of abuse of those laws.

The Indian Penal Code was inherited by Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
 and Bangladesh
Bangladesh

, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south....
, formerly part of British India. It was also adopted wholesale by the British colonial authorities in Burma, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
, Malaysia
Malaysia

Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....
, Singapore
Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country microstate located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It lies 137 kilometres north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands....
 and Brunei
Brunei

Brunei Darussalam, officially the State of Brunei, Abode of Peace , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia....
, and remains the basis of the criminal codes in those countries.

Reforms

In 2003, the Malimath Committee submitted its report recommending several far-reaching penal reforms including separation of investigation and prosecution (similar to the CPS
Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales....
 in the UK) to streamline the clogged up Indian criminal justice
Criminal justice

Criminal justice is the system of practices, and organizations, used by national and local governments, directed at maintaining social control, Deterrence and controlling crime, and sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties....
 system.

The essence of the report was a perceived need for shift from an adversarial to an inquisitorial criminal justice system, based on the Continental Europe
Continental Europe

Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands and, at times, peninsulas....
an systems.

See also

  • Indian Evidence Act
    Indian Evidence Act

    The Indian Evidence Act, originally passed by the British parliament in 1872, contains a set of rules and allied issues governing admissibility of any evidence in the Indian courts of law....


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