Historical overview of crimnallaw

1. Criminal law in India: A Historical
Overview

2. Introduction
Indian criminal law is the law relating to criminal
conduct in India.

3. Divisions
Indian criminal laws are divided into three major
acts:-
• Indian Penal Code, 1860
• Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
• Indian Evidence Act, 1872
Besides these major acts, special Criminal Laws are
also passed by the Indian Parliament i.e. NDPS,
Prevention of Corruption Act, Food Adulteration
Act, Dowry Prohibition Act, the Defence of India
Act,etc. thousands of minor la.ws are made in India

4. Indian Penal Code, 1860
The draft of the Indian Penal Code was prepared by the First Law Commission, chaired
by Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1834 and was submitted to Governor-General of
India Council in 1835. Based on a simplified codification of the law of England at the
time, elements were also derived from the Napoleonic Code and from Edward
Livingston's Louisiana Civil Code of 1825. The first final draft of the Indian Penal Code
was submitted to the Governor-General of India in Council in 1837, but the draft was
again revised. The drafting was completed in 1850 and the Code was presented to the
Legislative Council in 1856, but it did not take its place on the statute book of British
India until a generation later, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The draft then
underwent a very careful revision at the hands of Barnes Peacock, who later became
the first Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, and the future puisne judges of the
Calcutta High Court, who were members of the Legislative Council, and was passed
into law on 6 October 1860. The Code came into operation on 1 January 1862.
Macaulay did not survive to see the penal code he wrote come into force, having died
near the end of 1859. The code came into force in Jammu and Kashmir on 31 October
2019, by virtue of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, and replaced the
state's Ranbir Penal Code.

5. Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
In medieval India, subsequent to the law set by the
Muslims, the Mohammedan Criminal Law came into
prevalence. The British rulers passed the Regulating Act
of 1773 under which a Supreme Court was established in
Calcutta and later on at Madras and in Bombay. The
Supreme Court was to apply British procedural law while
deciding the cases of the Crown's subjects.
After the Rebellion of 1857, the crown took over the
administration in India. The Criminal Procedure Code,
1861 was passed by the British parliament. The CrPC was
created for the first time ever in 1882 and then amended
in 1898, then according to the 41st Law Commission
report in 1973

6. Indian Evidence Act, 1872
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
In order to trace the history of the law of
evidence in our country, we have to study three
different periods:
• The ancient Hindu period;
• The ancient Muslim period; and
• The British period

7. Ancient Hindu period:
The sources of information relating to the law of evidence prevailing in
Hindu India emanate from the Hindu Dharmashastras.
According to Hindu dharmashastras, the purpose of any trail is the
desire to ascertain the truth. The emphasized that a judge by using his
skill should extricate the deceit like a physician taking out from the
body an iron dart with the help of the surgical instruments.
Vasista recognisewd three type of evidence:
• Lekhya (documentary evidence),
• Sakshi (witnesses), and
• Bukhthi (possession).

8. Ancient Muslim period:
In regard to the law of evidence discussed in the
book “Muslim Jurisprudence” written by the sir
Abdul Rahim. The Mohammendan law givers
deals with evidence under the heads of oral and
documentary. Oral evidence is further sub-
classified into direct and hearsay evidence as in
present day

9. the British period:
In British India, the presidency courts by virtue of a royal charter establish in Bombay, Madras and
Calcutta were following English rules of the law of evidence. In mofussil courts, outside the presidency
towns, there were no definite rules relating to the law of evidence. The courts enjoyed unfettered
liberty in the matter of admission of evidence. The entire administration of justice in the mofussil
courts, in the absence of any definite rules regarding the law of evidence, was in total chaos.
There was a dire necessity for the codification of the rules of law. In 1835 the first attempt was made to
codify the rules of evidence by passing the Act, 1835. Between 1835 and 1853 about eleven enactments
were passed dealing with the law of evidence. But all these enactments were found inadequate.
In the year 1868, a commission was set up under the chairmanship of Sir Henry Mayne. He submitted
the draft, which was later found unsuitable to Indian conditions. Later in the year 1870, this task of
codification of the rules of law of evidence was entrusted to Sir James Fitz James Stephen. Stephen
submitted his draft and it was referred to the select committee and also to High Courts and members of
Bar to elicit the opinion, and, after gathering opinion, the draft was placed before the legislature and it
was enacted. And at last, “The evidence Act ” came in to force on 1st September, 1872.
Prior to Independence, there were as many as 600 princely States in India, which were not within the
jurisdiction of the British system of justice. Each of these states had its own rules of law of evidence. But
by and large, followed the Indian evidence Act 1872. After independence, there was a merger of
princely states into the Indian Union. Both the substantive as well procedural laws have since been
made uniformly applicable to all states, whether British province or native States. So much so, the law
of evidence is now applicable to all states constituting the Union of India.

10. Conclusion
The Indian Penal Code in all its glory is a document that was made
suited for India, by the British. Today we still follow the same rules and
laws; with different amendments as time and culture changes, but this
text has been the backbone for delivering justice to those violated.
Criminal law in India aims to punish the guilty and build a society that
is free from the clutches of evil, getting rid of them one by one. Even
though today’s society does not practice retributive justice, justice
today is not only for the victim but for society at large.
It is extremely important to understand humans and the need for
criminal law, the need for any law, to bring order to chaos that exists in
this world. Dostoyevsky the author of Crime & Punishment beautifully
writes “Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled, and if you spend
your whole life unravelling it, don’t say that you’ve wasted time. I am
studying that mystery because I want to be a human being.” Owing to
this today we maintain order, fight for justice and punish the criminal
based on the history and evolution of Criminal Law.