Law and You > Criminal Laws > Indian Penal Code > Scheme of Indian Penal Code
In last few articles, we have seen meaning of crime, its ingredients, its stages. In this article, we shall understand the scheme of Indian Penal Code.
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Before the advent of the British, the penal law prevailing in India, for the most part, was the Muhammedan law. There were many small states and they were using their own penal laws. Due to administrative necessities, the British felt a need single penal law for the whole of India. The objective of this Act is to provide a general Penal Code for India.
The first law commission was appointed in 1834 with Lord Macauley, the then Law Minister as its chairman, Sarvshri Macleod, Anderson, and Millet were the other members of the Commission. The first draft of the Indian Penal Code was prepared by the First Law Commission.
The draft was based on the simple codification of the law of England. It was revised by Sir Barnes Peacock, Sir JW Colville, and several others. The drafting was completed in 1850 and it was presented to the legislative council in 1856. The bill was passed on October 6th, 1860. It received the assent of the Governor-General on the same date and thus became the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The Code came into operation on 1st January 1862. The IPC defines offences and also provides for their punishment. It extends to the whole of India.
The Indian Penal Code is the main criminal code for the country. It includes all the criminal offences including crimes related to human body, property, conspiracy, crimes against the state or Public Tranquillity, etc. Anyone found guilty of a crime is punishable under the IPC. It contains the substantive criminal law. It is to be used with the procedural or adjectival law which is contained in the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, which discusses the evidentiary value in the criminal trial.
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The Scheme of the Act:
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 Penal Code can broadly be divided into four segments. Chapters I to V contain general matters relating to the extent, definitions, principles of liability etc. Chapters VI to XV deal with public matters between individuals and the state. Chapters XVI to XXII are mainly concerned with offences committed by individuals against individuals or legal persons other than the state. The last chapter XXIII is residuary in nature, laying down the principles of punishment for attempt to commit an offence if no specific provision has been made therefor. The basic outline of the code is given in the table below:
- Chapter I : Introduction: Sections 1 to 5
- Chapter II: General Explanations: Sections 6 to 52
- Chapter III: Of Punishments: Sections 53 to 75
- Chapter IV: General Exceptions and of the Right of Private Defence: Sections 76 to 106
- Chapter V: Of Abetment: Sections 107 to 120
- Chapter VA: Criminal Conspiracy: Sections 120A and 120B
- Chapter VI: Of Offences against State: (Sections 121 to 130
- Chapter VII: Of Offences Relating to the Army, Navy, and Air Force: Sections 131 to 140
- Chapter VIII: Of Offences against the Public Tranquility: Sections 141 to 160
- Chapter IX: Of Offences by or Relating to Public Servants: Sections 161 to 171
- Chapter IXA: Of Offences Relating to Elections: Sections 171 (A to I)
- Chapter X: Of Contempts of Lawful; Authority of Public Servants: Sections 172 to 190
- Chapter XI: Of False Evidence and Offence against Public Justice: Sections 191 to 229
- Chapter XII: Of Offences Relating to Coin and Government Stamps: Sections 230 to 263
- Chapter XIII: Of Offences Relating to Weight and Measures: (Sections 264 to 267
- Chapter IV: Of offences Affecting the Public Health, Safety, Convenience, Decency and Morals: Sections 268 to 294
- Chapter XV: Of Offences Relating to Religion: Sections 295 to 298
- Chapter XVI: Of Offences affecting the Human Body:
| Of Offences Affecting Life including murder, culpable homicide (Sections 299 to 311) Of the Causing of Miscarriage, of Injuries to Unborn Children, of the Exposure of Infants, and of the Concealment of Births (Sections 312 to 318) Of Hurt (Sections 319 to 338) Of Wrongful Restraint and Wrongful Confinement (Sections 339 to 348) Of Criminal Force and Assault (Sections 349 to 358) Of Kidnapping, Abduction, Slavery and Forced Labour (Sections 359 to 374) Sexual Offences including rape and Sodomy (Sections 375 to 377) |
- Chapter XVII: Of Offences Against Property:
| Of Theft (Sections 378 to 382) Of Extortion (Sections 383 to 389) Of Robbery and Dacoity (Sections 390 to 402) Of Criminal Misappropriation of Property (Sections 403 to 404) Of Criminal Breach of Trust (Sections 405 to 409) Of the Receiving of Stolen Property (Sections 410 to 414) Of Cheating (Section 415 to 420) Of Fraudulent Deeds and Disposition of Property (Sections 421 to 424) Of Mischief (Sections 425 to 440) Of Criminal Trespass (Sections 441 to 462) |
- Chapter XVIII: Offences relating to Documents and Property Marks:
| Offences relating to Documents (Section 463 to 477-A) Offences relating to Property and Other Marks (Sections 478 to 489) Offences relating to Currency Notes and Bank Notes (Sections 489A to 489E) |
- Chapter XIX: Of the Criminal Breach of Contracts of Service: Sections 490 to 492
- Chapter XX: Of Offences Relating to Marriage: Sections 493 to 498
- Chapter XXA: Of Cruelty by Husband or Relatives of Husband: Section 498A
- Chapter XXI: Of Defamation: Sections 499 to 502
- Chapter XXII: Of Criminal intimidation, Insult and Annoyance: Sections 503 to 510
- Chapter XXIII: Of Attempts to Commit Offences: Section 511
Conclusion:
The Indian Penal Code, 1860 is a visionary and laborious work of three decades (1834-1860) of the Law Commissioners, particularly, of Lord Macaulay, the main architect of the Code. It has codified the then prevailing English criminal law. It is pertinent to note that the Indian Penal Code, 1860 which has been amended only sparingly since its enactment in the post-British era, is in operation as a major substantive penal law of India since about the last 150 years. Only three chapters, namely offences relating to criminal conspiracy, election and cruelty to married women, have been added to its original 23 chapters.
Besides the general substantive criminal law codified in Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Central and State Legislations have enacted various legislations forming part of the penal law of the land to deal with specific subject matters. The special law is applicable to the particular subject while the local law makes the law applicable to a particular part of India. Any wrongful act which is thus prohibited under the general, special or local laws and visited with punishment is deemed to be an offence even though a civil liability may also arise out of the wrongful conduct.
The process of criminal investigation, prosecution, and adjudication necessarily warrant changes and transformation in tune with the developments in science. In fact, the technological and information revolution has swept the whole world. However, if there has been a great impetus to the economic development because of modern technology, it has also created worldwide insecurity because of sophisticated weapons being readily available because of transnational terrorism which has raised its ugly head due to a variety of reasons. Thus the Act should be modified as per the requirements of the present era.
In the next article, we shall study Sections 1 and 2 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with the extent and its inter-territorial applicability.
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