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Criminal Law in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Times

Criminal law in ancient India was administered locally by communities and guilds, with kings having a duty to administer justice according to codes like the Manusmriti. Under Mughal rule, criminal justice was administered by Islamic judges (kazis) according to Islamic law. The British began reforming criminal law starting in the late 18th century to abolish privileges, standardize punishments, and move away from Islamic and local laws. This led to the codification of the Indian Penal Code in 1860, establishing a uniform criminal code across British India.

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399 views15 pages

Criminal Law in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Times

Criminal law in ancient India was administered locally by communities and guilds, with kings having a duty to administer justice according to codes like the Manusmriti. Under Mughal rule, criminal justice was administered by Islamic judges (kazis) according to Islamic law. The British began reforming criminal law starting in the late 18th century to abolish privileges, standardize punishments, and move away from Islamic and local laws. This led to the codification of the Indian Penal Code in 1860, establishing a uniform criminal code across British India.

Uploaded by

Rvi Mahay
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Criminal Law in Ancient,

Medieval and Modern Times


Criminal law in ancient india
• In primitive societies administration of justice
was done by the common man in association
with Kula (Kul), Sreni or Guild
• King was not involved in administering justice
• The role of the King in administering justice
was first mentioned in the Dharma Sutras as
his primary duty.
• Manusmriti also lays down the laws and the
customs, prevailing religious precepts, and
usages.
• Manu recognized assault, theft, robbery,
breach of trust, false evidence, slander,
adultery, homicide, libel, gambling as crimes.
• Gravity of offence and sentence - Caste and Creed
• Brahmin – Leniency (No capital punishment only
banished)
• No distinction between public and private wrong
• Murder & Homicide – Private
• Can claim compensation from wrong doer
• Distinction between casual offender and habitual
offender
• Benaras Pandits made a Hindu Code known as Gentoo
Code during time of Warren Hastings.
• Death penalty for murder, theft of two kinds open and
concealed. For open theft – fine and for concealed –
mutilation. Hose breaking or highway robbery - death
Exemption from liability
• Act done in self defence
• Without intention
• Mistake of fact
• By consent
• By accident

• Administration of criminal law was as per


Manusmriti till the Mughal Rule
Medieval or Under Mughal rule
• Administration of justice with the Kazis
• Punishment:
Kisas or retaliation includng Diyut or blood
money
Hadd or fixed punishment – Specific penalties
like theft, robbery
Tazir or Syasa (discretionary punishment)
Political offence known as destruction of rebels
The notion of Kazis varied on the power of culprits,
hence lack of uniformity
Defects in administration of justice in Mughal Rule
• Homicide was classified into five grades
• Katl-amd or willful homicide by deadly weapon – equivalent to
murder
• Katl-shabah-amd or willful homicide caused by a weapon not
likely to cause death
• Khatl-Khata or erroneous homicide – killing under mistake of
person or circumstance
• Involuntary homicide by an involuntary act
• Accidental homicide by an intervenient cause – man digs well
and another fall in it and is injured
• For theft – hands were cut off
• For illicit intercourse – stoning or scourging
• For a sexual offence in which the women is
charged, her testimony was not accepted
instead four men’s testimony was given more
weightage. Death sentence granted to a
married man who has extra marital affairs
with a women not his wife.
• Under Mughals civil justice and revenue laws
came under the diwani while the military and
criminal justice was under the nizamat.
Changes in Criminal Law - 1772
• When Warren Wastings introduced his judicial
plan for administration of justice in Bengal Bihar
and Orissa. In justification of the severe
punishment proposed to be inflicted it was
pointed out that dacoits of Bengal were not like
the robbers in England , they are robbers by
profession and even by birth.
• Hastings suggested abolition of the privilege
granted by the Muslim law to the son or nearest
the kin to pardon there murderers of their
parents. According to Warren Hasting it was a law
of Barbarus construction and contrary to the
principle of civil society.
Changes in Criminal Law – 1790-93
• The first attempt to modify the Muslim law of
crime was initiated by Cornwallis in 1790.
• He abrogated crucial Muslim laws formulated by
Abu Hanifa that illogically maintained that a
murdered was not liable for punishment if the
crime was committed by strangling, drowning,
poisoning, or with a weapon which was not made
of iron. It was also declared that the kin of the
deceased didn‟t have any right to remit the
sentences of the offender.
Changes in 1797
• In case of murder it was laid down that a
prisoner convicted of willful murder was to be
punished without any reference to the heirs of
the person killed. Another innovation made at
that time was to substitute imprisonment for
blood money, In cases where under the
Muslim law, a person convicted of homicide
was liable to pay blood money the court of
circuit was to commute the fine to
imprisonment for such period as it
Reforms 1799-1802
• A number of changes was made to the criminal law
1799-1802 by the government of Lord Wellesley.
According to Regulation of 1799 no longer was any
murder to be justifiable and in all cases of murder the
offenders were to be punished by death.
• The regulation 18 of 1801 laid that a person convicted
of having deliberately and maliciously intended to
murder an individual and accidentally killed another
individual was to be liable to suffer death. Regulation
16 of 1802 abolished the criminal and inhuman
practice of sacrificing children and declared infanticide
punishable as willful murder liable to a sentence of
death.
Criminal Reform 1807-32
• Punishments for perjury and forgery were enhanced
• Exemplary punishments were prescribed for Dacoity.
• The need for four competent male witnesses was
rigorously insisted upon and presumptive proof was
not regarded sufficient to warrant conviction for the
offence. The regulation laid down that conviction for
the offence of adultery could be based on confessions,
creditable testimony or circumstantial evidence.
• The maximum punishment to be inflicted for the
offence was fixed at thirty nine stripes and
imprisonment with hard labour of up to seven years.
Married women were not to be prosecuted on such
charges
CODIFICATION OF THE LAWS
• After 1833, an All India Legislature was created and
through subsequent reforms through the years led to
the enactment of the Indian Penal code in 1860. During
the period from 1833-1860, changes were made in the
criminal law and the important ones included that
thugs came to be punished with imprisonment for life
with the hard labour, the status of slavery was declared
to be non-recognizable in any court of the company,
dacoits came to be punished with transportation for
life, or with imprisonment for any shorter term with
hard labour. It may also be mentioned punishments
prescribed for offences by the British Administrators
were very severe at first, with a view to suppress crime
IPC 1860
• The government in Britain in 1833 appointed a
commission known as the „Indian Law
Commission‟ to inquire into the jurisdiction,
powers and rules of existing courts and to make
reports setting forth the results of the inquiries
and suggesting reforms.
• In 1834, the 1st Law Commission was framed
under the leadership of Lord Macauley who took
up the responsibility of preparing th Penal Code.
• the most important contributions of the first
Law Commission was the Indian Penal Code,
submitted by Macaulay in 1837 and it
underwent modification for not less than 22
years and passed into law in 1860. Another
important law that was codified was the code
of criminal procedure. When it was first
passed in 1861, the Code of Criminal
Procedure fiercely guarded "privileges" or
"rights" as they were alternatively described
as and made the law both a symbolic and an
actual marker of imperial power

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