INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL LAW

INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL LAW

WHAT IS CRIME?

Criminal law deals with crime alone. It is difficult to give a correct and precise definition of crime.

Austin :

“ Any act or omission which the law punishes .”

Blackstone: Two definitions:

1.      “An act committed or omitted in violation of public law forbidding or commanding it.”

2.      “ A crime is aviolation of the public rights and duties due to the whole community considered as a community.

NEED FOR CRIMINAL LAW/PENAL LAW

Personal safety, particularly security of life, liberty and property, iis of utmost importance to any individual Maintenance of peace and order is absolutely essential in any society for human beings to live peacefully and without fear of injury to their lives and property. This is possible only in states where the penal law is effective and strong enough to deal with the violations of law.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN PENAL LAW

            Under the ancient Hindu kings the administration of civil and criminal justice was based on the rules of Dharma. Law was was discussed under 18 heads covering both civil and criminal branches of law such as, gifts, sales, partition, bailment, non-payment of debt, breaches of contract, disputes between partners, assault, defamation , trespass of cattle, damage to goods and bodily injuries in general.

            Manu’s code recognizes assault, defamation, theft, robbery, violence to body and adultery as crimes.

            Yagna Valkya and Nilkhanta also recognized Manu’s code.

Nayukha law prevailed in Bombay which punished people for assault,  theft, violence and adultery.

            Governor General of Indian Warren Hastings compiled these Hindu laws with the help of pundits of Varanasi. It was called as Gentoocode .

            In 1773 Lord Cornwalis passed  Judicial Regulations, which formed the foundation for present judicial system. . by the regulating Act of 1773, a Supreme Court consisting of a Chief Justice and three puisne judges was established at Calcutta.. Thereafter as per king’s Bench England branches of Supreme Court established in Madras(1800) and in Bombay (1823).

            Bombay was the first province in India in which a penal code was enacted.  The Governor of Bombay Mount Stuart Elphinstone issued a simple brief of penal code in 1827, which continued in force till it was superseded by the IPC.

            After aannexure of Punjab the mohammedan laws could not applied against the sikh peoples. Thereafter a commission was formed under the head of Lord Maccauley and drafted present penal law of India in the year 1834-38.

ELEMENTS OF CRIME

1.      ACTUS REUS – an overt act, physical result of human conduct.

2.      MENS REA – wrongful intention.

WHAT IS ACT?

Sections 32 and 33 defines act.

Section 32:- in every part of the code(except where a contrary intention appears from the context words, which refers to acts done, intention appears from the context)m which refers to acts done, extend to illegal omissions.

Section 33:- provides that the word “act” includes a series of acts as well as and the word “omission” denotes a series of omissions.

WHAT IS AN OFFENCE:-

Section 36 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 says an act or an omission constitutes an offence, the committing of the offence partly by an act and partly by an omission, would also constitute the same offence.

PRINCIPLE OF CRIMINAL LIABILITY

The fundamental principle of criminal liability is that there must be a wrongful act – actus reus combined with a wrongful intention- mens rea.

The actus reus varies with reference to place, fact, time, person, consent, the state of mind of the victim, possession or even more preparation.

Maxim- “ Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.

Meaning: an act does not make one guilty unless the mind is also guilty”.