Limit of punishment of offence made up of several offences
AI Assist
Summary
When an offence is made up of parts that are each offences, the offender cannot be punished more than once for those parts, unless the law expressly allows multiple punishments. If the same act fits two or more offence definitions, or several acts combine to form a different offence, the punishment cannot exceed the maximum the court could award for any one of those offences.
Example
Ravi hits Aditya fifty times with a stick. He may be guilty of causing hurt by the whole beating and also by each individual blow, but he can only be punished once for the whole beating. If Priya steps in and Ravi intentionally strikes her during the same incident, he can receive one punishment for the hurt to Aditya and another for the blow to Priya.
Bare Act
Enacted text(1) Where anything which is an offence is made up of parts, any of which parts is itself an offence, the offender shall not be punished with the punishment of more than one of such his offences, unless it be so expressly provided.
(2) —
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(a) Where anything is an offence falling within two or more separate definitions of any law in force for the time being by which offences are defined or punished; or
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(b) Where several acts, of which one or more than one would by itself or themselves constitute an offence, constitute, when combined, a different offence, the offender shall not be punished with a more severe punishment than the Court which tries him could award for any one of such offences.
Illustrations
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(a) A gives Z fifty strokes with a stick. Here A may have committed the offence of voluntarily causing hurt to Z by the whole beating, and also by each of the blows which make up the whole beating. If A were liable to punishment for every blow, he might be imprisoned for fifty years, one for each blow. But he is liable only to one punishment for the whole beating.
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(b) But, if, while A is beating Z, Y interferes, and A intentionally strikes Y, here, as the blow given to Y is no part of the act whereby A voluntarily causes hurt to Z, A is liable to one punishment for voluntarily causing hurt to Z, and to another for the blow given to Y.
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