Unit 3 of Criminology and Penology (syllabus: Module III — the police under the Police Act 1861: constitution, superintendence, administration and the duties in s. 23; the relation between police and prosecution; penology; and the theories of punishment read on Ashworth’s behavioural and political premises — desert, deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation and restorative theories; kinds of punishment and capital punishment). Below: what the unit covers, the provisions it turns on, and the cases an examiner expects you to name.
What this unit covers
- Where does superintendence of the police vest, and why is section 3 the hinge of the whole subject?
- What are the statutory duties of a police officer, and what is the Act's own answer to custodial violence?
- What did the Supreme Court direct in Prakash Singh, and how does each direction answer a defect in the Police Act?
- Why does punishment need justifying at all, and how should a theories answer be organised?
- Give the behavioural and political premises of each sentencing rationale, and say which supplies a right against excess.
- What procedure must a court follow before imposing a sentence of death?
- State the rarest of rare rule, and explain why Bachan Singh refused to lay down standards.
- What are the five categories in Machhi Singh, and why are they not a code?
- What requirements did D.K. Basu lay down for every arrest and detention?
Treat that list as a self-test: recite each topic's rule from memory before you open its cases.
Provisions
- Police Act 1861, s. 3, read with sections 2 and 4
- Police Act 1861, s. 23 and 29
- Constitution of India, s. Article 32 read with Article 142
- The theories of punishment, s. The five Indian theories and the analytical arrangement
- The analytical theories of punishment, s. Desert, deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation, restorative and republican
- Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, s. 235(2), read with 354(3) and 361
- Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, s. Penal Code section 302 and CrPC section 354(3)
- Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, s. 354(3)
- Constitution of India, s. Articles 21 and 22(1)
Leading cases
- Prakash Singh v Union of India
- D. K. Basu v State of West Bengal
- Ashworth's analytical arrangement of sentencing rationales by their behavioural and political premises
- Ashworth on the behavioural and political premises of the sentencing rationales
- Allauddin Mian v State of Bihar
- Bachan Singh v State of Punjab
- Machhi Singh v State of Punjab
- D.K. Basu v State of West Bengal