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Types of Punishment
Types of Punishment
Punishment is a process by
which the state inflicts some
pain to the persons or property
of person who is found guilty of
Crime. In other words
punishment is sanction
imposed on an accused for the
infringement of the established
rules.
Types of punishment: There
are five different kinds of
punishments awarded by the
Indian Penal Code, 1860 under
Section 53, and they are
Death,
Life imprisonment,
Simple or rigorous
imprisonment,
Fine and
Forfeiture of property.
1)Death: Death Penalty or
capital Punishment is the most
serious nature of punishment.
Some countries abolished it. A
death sentence may be
awarded under the Indian
Penal Code in the following
cases
i) Waging, or attempting to
wage war, or abetting waging
of war, against the Government
of India . (Section. 121)
ii) Abatment of mutiny, if
mutiny is committed. (Section
132)
iii) Giving or fabricating false
evidence upon which an
innocent person suffers death
(Section. 194)<br><br>iv)
Murder (Section
302)<br><br>v) Abetment of
suicide of a minor, or insane or
intoxicated person
(305)<br><br>vi) Attempt to
Murder by a person under
sentence of imprisonment for
life, if hurt is caused (Section
307).<br><br>vii) Kidnapping
for ransom etc. (Section
364A)<br><br>viii) Dacoity with
murder (Section
369)<br><br>Life
imprisonment:<br> Life
Imprisonment means a
sentence of imprisonment
running throughout the
remaining period of a convict's
natural life. But in practice it is
not so.<br> According to
Section 55 of Indian Penal
Code, in every case in which
sentence of imprisonment for
life shall have been passed, the
appropriate Government may,
without the consent of the
offender, commute the
punishment for
imprisonment of either
description for a term not
exceeding fourteen years.
Section 57 states that in
calculating fractions of terms of
punishment, imprisonment for
life shall be reckoned as
equivalent to imprisonment for
twenty years.<br><br>Case
law: K.M. Nanavati v. State of
Maharashtra.<br>In this case
supreme court held that
imprisonment for life means
rigorous imprisonment for life
and not simple
Imprisonment.<br><br>Simple
or rigorous
imprisonment:<br><br>i)
Rigorous Imprisonment -
<br>Imprisonment may be
rigorous with hard labour. such
as digging earth, cutting wood
etc. <br> According to Section
60 of Indian penal code, in
every case in which an offender
is punishable with
imprisonment which may be of
either description, it shall be
competent to the Court which
sentences such offender to
direct in the sentence that such
imprisonment shall be wholly
rigorous, or that such
imprisonment shall be wholly
simple or that any part of such
imprisonment shall be rigorous
and the rest
simple.<br><br>The Indian
Penal Code prescribes
imprisonment as punishment
for <br><br> (1) Giving or
fabricating false evidence with
intent to procure conviction of
capital offence (Section
194)<br><br> (2) House-
trespass in order to commit
offence punishable with death
(Section 449)<br><br>ii) Simple
Imprisonment <br> Simple
imprisonment is imposed for
small offences like wrongful
restraint, defamation etc. In
case of simple imprisonment
the convict will not be forced to
do any hard manual labour.
There are some offences which
are punishable with simple
imprisonment are:<br><br> 1)
Refusing to take oath (Section
178)<br><br> 2) Defamation
(Section 500)<br><br> 3)
Wrongful restraint<br> <br> 4)
Misconduct by a drunken
person, etc (Section
510)<br><br>Forfeiture of
property:<br> Forfeiture of
property means taking away
the property of the criminal by
the State. Forfeiture of
property is now abolished
except in the case of following
offences :<br><br> 1)
Committing depredation on
territories of Power at peace
with the Government of
India(Section 126)<br> 2)
Receiving property taken by
war or depredation mentioned
in sections 125 and 126
(Section
127).<br><br>Fine:<br> The
Courts may impose fine as sole
imprisonment or alternative or
it may be imposed in addition
to the imprisonment. The
Indian Penal Code , 1860
prescribes fine along with
imprisonment in respect of
certain offences. In default of
fine, imprisonment may be
imposed.<br></p>