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Home  »  Indian Penal Code ( IPC )   »   Kinds Of Punishments

Kinds Of Punishments
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By Shreya Sahoo | January 27, 2020 0 Comment

Kinds Of Punishments | Overview

Introduction
Kinds Of Punishments
Capital Punishment
Imprisonment
Levying of penalty
Forfeiture of Property
Contemporary Penal System
Conclusion

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.

Introduction
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The practice of awarding punishments is a very important part of the criminal justice system as it a
form of society’s manifestation of the admonition of the crime by a collective conscience as
specified by Durkheim. The object of the punishment in Manu’s words is- “punishment governs all
mankind; punishment alone preserves them; punishment awakes while their guards are asleep; the
wise consider the punishment (danda) as the perfection of justice.”[1]

The entire goal of punishment can be justified by a sociological perspective and it attains legitimacy
by a legal framework.

According to H.L.A Hart, there are some important features of a punishment and those are
– “It should inflict some amount of pain and unpleasant consequences to the offender, it
should relate to the offense that the offender has committed, it should be a response for
breaking the social norms, and it should be administered by an authority under the legal
framework.”

This definition has gathered a lot of criticism as it does not differentiate between the punishment
to be awarded for criminal wrong vis-à-vis civil wrong which may be distinct considering the gravity
and nature of the wrong committed.

As society has evolved, the form of punishments has also changed with it. Earlier the sole object for
punishing a delinquent was retribution i.e. to recompense from him the wrong he has committed or
in other words because he deserves to be admonished. Retribution is revenge for an injury. For
instance, in earlier times certain punishments could administer extreme brutality. However such
punishments are no more a part of the contemporary criminal legal system as they violate
humanitarian grounds.

In early times, the death penalty was awarded to minor offences like pickpocketing, but, gradually
this trend diminished and several other forms of punishments were introduced such as community
work, fines, imprisonment. The cardinal object of punishment today is to protect the society and this
is can be attained partly deterrence, preventive and reformative measures.

The Apex court in the case, Hazara Singh v. Raj Kumar[2] was of the opinion that all the
pertinent factors and circumstances to be taken into account while imposing an appropriate
sentence. The judiciary has been vested with a huge discretion of awarding punishment in
India, which must be exercised with utmost care and caution.

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The absence of uniform sentencing policy in India results in the exercise of unbridled discretion of
the judiciary and ensues in the awarding of disproportionate punishment. The court further opined
that fundamental principle that must be adhered to while awarding punishment is that the
punishment must be commensurate and proportionate to the gravity of the offense.

According to Lord Denning:[3]

“The punishment inflicted for grave crimes should adequately reflect the revulsion felt by
the great majority of the citizens for them. It is a mistake to consider the objects of
punishment as being deterrent or reformative or preventive or nothing else. The ultimate
justification of any punishment is not that it is deterrent, but that it is the emphatic
denunciation by the community of crime.”

Lord Reid in the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v Ottewell[4] has emphasised on the
hindrances involved in sentencing:

“It was rather tentatively suggested by the learned Attorney General that there is a ‘tariff’
for each kind of offence which is varied upwards or downwards according to the
circumstances of the offence and the character of the accused. Offences of a particular kind
vary so vastly, however, in gravity there cannot and should no t be any ‘normal ‘ sentence’,
and there is no workable standard by which to judge whether any particular standard is
extended beyond what is ‘normal’.”

Kinds Of Punishments

The five different kinds of punishments awarded by the Indian Penal Code, 1860 have been
enumerated under Section 53, and those are:

Death
Life imprisonment
Simple or rigorous imprisonment
Fine
Forfeiture of property

The aforementioned punishment can also be awarded in conjunction in order to achieve the
intended goal and deter the wrong committed. General provisions related to punishmentPrivacy
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different offences are enumerated in Sections 53 to 75 of IPC. Section 63 to 70 incorporate the

provisions related to the imposition of fines and any alternative sentence, in case fines are not paid.

Section 73 and 74 lay down the punishment of ‘solitary confinement’ and spells out the limitation
with regard to its imposition. Section 75 spells out the provision related to certain offences when
committed by repeat offenders.

Capital Punishment

It is the punishment wherein the accused is executed to death after he has been found to be guilty
of a criminal offence in accordance to the appropriate legal process. The imposition of the death
penalty is a debatable topic and is agitated in a lot of nations currently. However, U.K has retained it
in its legal system to redress the following cases:

High treason[5]
Murder during or of – shooting or causing explosion, a public servant on duty, theft,
while resisting lawful arrest, party to murder.
Setting ablaze her majesty’s stores, ships, etc[6]
Committing piracy with violence[7]

In contemporary India, death sentences are only reserved for the rarest of rare case. However, there
is no guideline or structure to define these “rarest of rare” cases.

Further, the 35th Law Commission report said, “having regard, however, to the conditions
in India, to the variety of the social upbringing of its inhabitants, to the disparity in the level
of morality and education in the country, to the vastness of its area, to the diversity of its
population, and to the paramount need for maintaining law and order in the country at the
present juncture, India cannot risk the experiment of abolition of capital punishment.”[8]

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PRICE DROP

The Human Rights Commission of the United Nations adopted a resolution demanding a complete
eradication of the death sentence as a punishment.[9] However, the Apex court of India has held a
death sentence constitutionally valid.[10] Yet, the debate regarding the unconstitutionality of death
penalty still continues and finally, the Apex court in the case, Bacchan Singh v State of Punjab,[11]
observed that death sentences can only be awarded in the rarest of rare cases. Complying with this
ruling the Parliament has added Section 354 (3) which read as:

“When the conviction is for an offence punishable with death or, in the alternative, with
imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of years, the judgment shall state the
reasons for the sentence awarded, and, in the case of sentence of death, the special reasons
for such sentence.”

Apex court in the case, Macchi Singh v. State of Punjab,[12] expanded the finding laid down in
Bacchan Singh. Hereunder are certain observations made by the court:

Death sentence can only be awarded in case of gravest of culpability

Circumstances of the offender must be taken into consideration before pronouncing a
death sentence
Death sentence can only be imposed when awarding life imprisonment does seem to be
adequate for the crime committed by the offender.
Before ruling in favour of the death penalty, both, mitigating and aggravating factors
must be considered and doing so according to full weightage to the mitigating factors.

Imprisonment

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This is a punishment wherein the accused is confined in a penitentiary. Hawk said that “It seems
clear that any place, whatsoever, wherein a person under a lawful arrest for a supposed crime is
restrained of his liberty, whether stocks at the street, or in the common goal, or in the house of a
constable or private person or the prison of the ordinary is properly a prison within the statute; for
imprisonment is nothing else but a restraint of liberty.”[13]

Imprisonment was barely known during the primitive age and became a major part of the legal
system only in the 19th century and 20th century. The framers of the India Penal Code even
envisaged two kinds of imprisonment i.e.-

Rigorous
Simple

Lord Cornwallis had envisioned the removal of mutilation as a punishment which was finally
abolished by the Govt in the year 1791. Thereafter, convicts who were sentenced to lose two limbs
were sentenced for 14 years in prison and concurrently those who had to lose one were sentenced
for 7 years in prison.

Section 54, IPC lays down that if the Government deems it appropriate then it can, without the
consent of the offender commute the punishment earlier awarded to the offender. Further, it must
be noted that the power provided to the President under Article 72(3) or of the Governor as
provided under Article 161 of the Indian Constitution does not curtail the authority of the
concerned government (State or Central) provided under Section 54. Malimath Committee has
recommended that an alternative punishment be added, namely, “imprisonment for life without
commutation or remission”, wherein life imprisonment has been awarded.[14]

Levying of penalty

The imposition of fine or penalty has been prevalent since the inception of tribal system in the
civilisation. In the case of Ashok Kumar vs. State,[15] the Apex court had opined that “payment of
fine brings home the sense of responsibility in a surer fashion than even short terms of
imprisonment in some case.” The Indian Penal Code and several other Indian statutes have affixed
levying of fine as an alternative as well to the main punishment.

The Law Commission has nonetheless provided a caveat to the judges to impose a proportionate
penalty since it affects the dependants of the accused along with him. Therefore the Apex court in
the current times has to take cognisance of the pecuniary status of the offender with respect to the
brutality and character of the offence committed by him. Additionally, it must be noted that
forfeiture of money is allied to sentencing a person by fining him.[16]

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PRICE DROP

The Indian criminal system has become redundant when it comes to the pronouncement of
punishments due to the absence of a uniform sentencing guideline. A glaring example is a
case, Arun Garg v State of Punjab,[17] wherein the offender who was found guilty for
committing ‘dowry death’ under Section 304B was imposed with a fine of Rs. 2000 and
imprisonment.

Later, as a result of an appeal, the High court increased the fine to Rs. 2 Lakhs and
interestingly, the Apex court, set aside the fine in entirety.

Forfeiture of Property

Forfeiture of property has been provided by the Indian Penal Code and it was even prevalent in
ancient India. However, the Indian Penal Code (Amendment) Act, 1921 repealed Section 61 and 62
which imposed the punishment awarding for forfeiture of property. Yet, there exist certain
provisions in the current IPC which provide for forfeiture of property as a punishment:

Section 126 – Committing depradation on territories of power at peace with the Govt of
India
Section 127 – Receiving property taken by war or depredation mentioned in Sec.125 and
126 of I.P.C.
Section 169 – Public servant unlawfully buying or bidding for a property

Contemporary Penal System

Currently, the Indian criminal system has witnessed a change in their outlook with respect to the
penal policy and this is evident in certain statutory provisions, those are – the Juvenile Justice (Care
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& Protection of Children) Act, 2000, Children’s Acts, the Abolition of Whipping Act, the Probation of
Offenders Act, 1958, Section 27 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 and the Repeal of Criminal
Tribes Act. The reform is inevitable of the following two facts –

The system of punishment cannot be entirely based on the nature of the wrong
committed but must be variable depending on the character of the offender. Two
completely different kinds of offenders could have committed the same kind of crime
and hence, punishment must be conditioned to suit different categories of offenders.
The idea behind punishment must not only be retribution but also to prevent the
offense being committed in times to come. Therefore, reformation in punishments is
advisable when the earlier punishment could not deter the occurrence of the same
offence.

The Indian criminal system barely attracts any attention towards the victim and this apathy of the
criminal justice system has been emphasised by Rattan Singh v State of Punjab,[18] by Krishna Iyer. J
as follows:

“It is a weakness of our jurisprudence that victims of crime and the distress of the
dependents of the victim do not attract the attention of law. In fact, the victim reparation is
still the vanishing point of our criminal law. This is the deficiency in the system, which must
be rectified by the legislature.”

Considering the plight of the victims the General Assembly of United Nations has adopted a
“Declaration of the Basic Principles of Justice for the Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power”.[19]
Furthermore, Section 357 of Code of Criminal Procedure envisages providing compensation to the
victims of crime.[20]

Conclusion

Time and again various committees like Malimath Committee, Madhav Menon Committee and
several case laws have recommended the inclusion of a comprehensive and uniform guideline for
the pronouncement of punishment i.e. a sentencing policy. This is to ensure that the judiciary will
not exercise unbridled discretion of authority while awarding punishment.

In the absence of such a structured set of guidelines, the ramifications of punishments

become highly arbitrary and harsh. This may lead to undue uncertainty and the
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tendered to any provision where fine is awarded as an alternative to imprisonment to avoid

gross injustice to the victim where the imposition of imprisonment is appropriate.

[1] Institutes of Hindu Law (translated by Haughton, G.C.1835) Ch. 7, para 18 p.189

[2] [2013] 9 SCC 516

[3] RCCP [1953] Cmd 8932, p.18

[4] [1970] JAC 642 rta

[5] Treason Act, 1814, S.1 and S.2

[6] Dockyards Protection Act, 1772

[7] Piracy Act, 1837, Sec.2

[8] Law Commission, The Death Penalty, (Law Com No 35, 2015)
<http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/reports/report262.pdf>

[9] General Assembly resolution 44/128 of 15 December 1989,

<http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_opt2.htm>

[10] Jagmohan Singh v State of U.P, AIR 1973 SC 94

[11] AIR 1980 SC 898

[12] AIR 1983 SC 957

[13] Hawk, P.C. 18, S. 4

[14] Government of India, Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System (Ministry of Home
Affairs, New Delhi ,March 2003) para 14

[15] [1980] 2 SCC 20

[16] Tandon M.P. Indian Penal Code, Central Law Agency 4th Edn. 1992

[17] [2004] 8 SCC 251

[18] [1979] 4 SCC 719

[19] Adopted by General Assembly resolution 40/34 of 29 November 1985,

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[20] Bodhisattva Gautam v. Subhra Chakraborti, [1996] 1 SCC 490

1. History of Punishment
2. A Critical Analysis of the Law of Capital Punishment in India

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Indian Penal Code ( IPC )

Author: Shreya Sahoo

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