The Penal Code, 1860 (Bangladesh)

The Penal Code, 1860
(Act No. XLV of 1860).
Council of the Governor General
Jatiyo Sangshad
Citation
Territorial extent Bangladesh
Enacted by British Indian Empire
People's Republic of Bangladesh
Date enacted 6 October 1860
Date assented to 6 October 1860
Date commenced 1 January 1862
Committee report First Law Commission
Status: Amended

The Penal Code, 1860 is the main criminal code of Bangladesh. It is based on the penal code of the British Indian Empire enacted in 1860 by the Governor General-in-Council in the Bengal Presidency. It is similar to the penal codes of countries formerly part of the British Empire in South and Southeast Asia, including Singapore, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

The Parliament of Bangladesh has amended the penal code on several occasions, with the most recent being in 2004.

The code is a legacy of the Victorian era. While its objective is to provide a general penal code for Bangladesh,[1] other criminal law statutes have also been enacted by the Bangladeshi parliament.

History

The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of British India. It was presented to the Governor of Bengal in 1837. While based on the law of Victorian England, it derived elements from the Napoleonic Code and Louisiana Civil Code of 1825. It was adopted on 6 October 1860.[2] When East Bengal became part of Pakistan after the Partition of British India, the code was known as the Pakistan Penal Code. The code was re-enacted in Bangladesh after the country's independence in 1971.

Overview

Offences under the Code have been classified as those (i) against the State; (ii) related to the Army, Navy and the Air Force; (iii) against the public tranquility; (iv) by or related to the public servants; (v) related to elections; (vi) for contempt of the lawful authority of public servants; (vii) of false evidence and against public justice; (viii) related to coins and government stamps; (ix) related to weights and measures; (x) affecting public health, safety, convenience, decency and morals; (xi) related to religion; (xii) affecting the human body which have further been sub-divided into offences affecting life, and causing miscarriage, kidnapping, rape, robbery, or related to marriage, criminal breach of trust and so on.[3]

The offences against the State mainly consist of waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against Bangladesh; conspiring to commit the said offences; collecting arms with the intention of waging war against Bangladesh; sedition; waging war against any neighboring power in alliance with Bangladesh; and assaulting the President of Bangladesh or government with intent to restrain or compel exercise of any lawful power. Offences relating to the Army, Navy and Air Force mainly consist of abatement of mutiny; attempting to seduce a soldier, sailor or airman from his duty; abatement of assault by soldier, sailor or airman on his superior officer when in execution of his office; abatement of desertion of soldier, sailor or airman; harbouring deserters and wearing garb or carrying token used by soldier, sailor or airman. Offences related to religion consist of injuring or defiling place of worship; deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion; disturbing religious assembly; trespassing in any place of worship or any burial place or cremation ground with intent to insult the religion of any person, and uttering words or sound with intent to wound religious feelings of another person.[4]

Rape of a woman, kidnapping, theft, extortion, robbery, dacoitry (burglary), dishonest misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust etc are all punishable under Penal laws. At the same time offences related to culpable homicide amounting to murder, fraudulent execution of deed of transfer containing false statement, killing or maiming cattle, house-trespass are crimes which are also subject to punishment.[5]

The gravity of an offence provides for imposing death penalty, imprisonment for life, forfeiture of property, fine and whipping as the case may be. Death sentence is the highest form of punishment under the Penal Code and may be imposed for treason, abatement of mutiny, perjury resulting in an innocent person being convicted and executed, murder, abatement of suicide of a minor or insane or intoxicated person, attempt to murder by a person under sentence of imprisonment for life, kidnapping or abducting a person under the age of ten and murder while committing dacoity. Imprisonment for life may be imposed for the above offences and some other grave offences. Imprisonment for various terms may be imposed with fine or without fine for the remaining offences. In case of some heinous offences court may impose fine only instead of imposing sentence of imprisonment. For some heinous offences court may impose sentence of whipping with imprisonment. In some of the offences court may order for forfeiture of the property of the accused. The government may commute a sentence of death including an imprisonment for life to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding twenty years. The President may grant pardons, reprieve respites or remissions of sentence.[6]

Chapters

The following includes the chapters of the code.

  • Chapter I - Introduction
  • Chapter II - General Explanations
  • Chapter III - Punishments
  • Chapter IV - General Exceptions
  • Chapter V - Abetment
  • Chapter VA - Criminal Conspiracy
  • Chapter VI - Offences Against the State
  • Chapter VII - Offences relating to the Army, Navy or Air Force
  • Chapter VIII - Offences Against Public Tranquility
  • Chapter IX - Offences by or relating to Public Servants
  • Chapter IXA - Offences relating to Elections
  • Chapter X - Contempts of the Lawful Authority of Public Servants
  • Chapter XI - False Evidence and Offences Against Public Justice
  • Chapter XII - Offences relating to Coin and Government Stamps
  • Chapter XIII - Offences relating to Weights and Measures
  • Chapter XIV - Offences Affecting the Public Health, Safety, Convenience, Decency and Morals
  • Chapter XV - Offences relating to Religion
  • Chapter XVI - Offences affecting the Human Body
  • Chapter XVII - Offences against Property
  • Chapter XVIII - Offences relating to Documents and Trade or Property Marks
  • Chapter XIX - Criminal Breach of Contracts of Service
  • Chapter XX - Offences relating to Marriage
  • Chapter XXI - Defamation
  • Chapter XXII - Criminal Intimidation, Insult, Prejudicial Act and Annoyance
  • Chapter XXIII - Attempts to Commit Offences

Controversial issues

Sedition

Sedition and seditious libel has been criticized as an outdated law. While the United Kingdom has phased out penalties for seditious libel, its continued presence in the Bangladeshi penal code has been used by the government to target to leading journalists and politicians.[7]

Section 377

Section 377 criminalizes homosexuality, which has been criticized by the LGBT rights movement.[8]

Capital punishment

Capital punishment remains legal in Bangladesh, although other common law countries like the United Kingdom and Canada have abolished the death penalty.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Penal Code, 1860 (Act No. XLV of 1860)". Bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd. 1949-08-12. Retrieved 2017-07-10. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. ↑ "Bangladesh - The Penal Code (Act No. XLV of 1860)". Ilo.org. 2013-01-17. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  3. ↑ http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Penal_Laws
  4. ↑ http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Penal_Laws
  5. ↑ http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Penal_Laws
  6. ↑ http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Penal_Laws
  7. ↑ M Qaium (2016-02-29). "Sedition is too old fashioned in a modern society". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  8. ↑ "Where does Bangladesh stand on homosexuality issue?". Archive.dhakatribune.com. 2016-04-27. Archived from the original on 2017-06-05. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  9. ↑ "The Death Penalty in Bangladesh". Deathpenaltyworldwide.org. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
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