LAWS in INDIA

Introduction

India is a country that has people belonging to diverse religion, race, caste and gender. In
order to maintain legal order in this diverse culture India has adopted a legal system that is
amalgamation of civil, common and criminal laws. Indian legal setup was initially adopted
from the laws that were laid down during the British rule and many of those laws are still in
effect with regular amendments from time to time depending on the changing status of
society.

Laws in India can be broadly bifurcated into the following categories i.e. Civil and Criminal
Law.

Criminal Law is that area of law which defines various criminal offences, procedure for
conducting trials of the accused person, lays down fine and punishment for various offences
and in this way it acts as deterrent from commission of further offences.

The main objective of criminal law is to give punishment to the offender in proportion to the
offence committed by him, considering the nature and gravity of crime. A few most widely
known criminal laws are:

1. Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860

Indian Penal Code can be defined as a criminal code which defines various criminal offences
and lays down fine and punishment for the commission of those offences. In 1834, the First
Law Commission prepared the draft of Indian Penal Code under the chairmanship of Thomas
Babington Macaulay and it was presented before the Governor-General of India Council in
1835. In total IPC has 511 sections spread across 23 chapters. It has been amended from time
to time and its jurisdictions extends to whole of India.

2. Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

The Code of Criminal Procedure also known as the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is the
principal statute which lays down the procedure for regulation of criminal law in India. It was
first enacted in 1973 and subsequently came into force on 1 April 1974. It lays down
mechanism for carrying out the investigation of a crime, arresting the accused or suspected
person, collection of evidence, presenting the accused before the court, ascertain the guilt or
innocence of the accused and imposing the punishment or fine on the convict. It further lays
down the hierarchical order for different courts competent to try a particular criminal lawsuit.

3. Indian Evidence Act, 1872

The Indian Evidence Act, was initially passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in 1872,
during the British era. This act lays down set of rules that regulate or govern the admissibility
of evidence in the Indian courts. It came into force on 1 September 1872. This act is
applicable to all the judicial proceedings including the court martial.

4. Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2013

The POCSO Act is a special law that is enacted by the government to address the cases of
child sexual abuse. It came into effect from 14 November, 2012, it provides for child-friendly
methods to deal with the cases of sexual abuse, harassment and pornography related to
children, which are given higher priority and these cases are tried in Special Courts.

5. Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and

This Act lays down the procedure or mechanism that is to be followed in cases dealing with
sexual harassment of women at workplace and it came into effect from 9 December 2013.
The objective of this act is to protect women from incidents of sexual harassment at
workplace and create a safe and healthy working environment for women.

Civil Laws

Civil laws are undoubtedly one of the most important areas of law for any nation. They
provide a framework of rules, regulations and mechanism which helps to resolve disputes
between individuals, organizations and other matters of non-criminal nature.

Unlike criminal law, which aims punish the convict, the primary objective of civil law is to
compensate the victim or to restore him in the original position as he was in, before the
damage was done to him, which is termed as Restitutio in Integrum in Latin.

Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), 1908

The Code of Civil Procedure is an exhaustive code that lays down the mechanism for trial of
civil cases in India. The foundation of CPC can be traced back to 1856 under the rule of
British government. It prescribes the jurisdiction of civil courts in India and allocates what
type of cases can be dealt by a particular court.

Indian Contract Act, 1872

The Indian Contract Act regulates all the contractual agreements that takes place within the
jurisdiction of India. This act was enacted on 25 April 1872 and subsequently came into force
on 1 September 1872. This act derives its force from English Common Law. The primary
objective of this act is to specify all the agreements in which promises made by the
contracting parties shall make them legally bound to perform their respective contractual
obligations.

Family Law

Family law is that branch of law which deals with the matters pertaining to family such
marriage, adoption, divorce, alimony, inheritance, child custody etc. The aim of this law is to
ensure smooth functioning of the institution of family in our society by way of protecting
individual rights.

Corporate Law

Corporate law can be defined as body of laws, rules and regulations that govern the activities
of various business entities, organizations, companies and people. This law helps to regulate
numerous business operations of a corporate entity like formation, dissolution, partnership,
ownership, management etc.

Law of Torts

Law of Torts can simply be defined as a civil wrong, other than the law of contract that
results in violation of legal right (Injuria Sine Damnum) of the plaintiff caused by actions of
defendant. In Law of Torts a plaintiff cannot claim remedy if he has suffered damage without
any violation of his/her legal right (Damnum Sine Injuria).

Conclusion

In this blog we have thoroughly discussed what are the basic criminal, civil laws and codes
within the jurisdiction of India that are being implemented. In order to summarise this blog
we can say that criminal laws are those laws that seeks to promote the interest and welfare of
society at large, as a crime is not just committed against one person but it affects the society
as a whole. On the other hand civil laws are those laws that aims to compensate the victim
rather than giving punishment to the wrongdoer, it tries to solve personal disputes between
two individuals, organisations and institutions. For more blogs like this, keep visiting our
website.