45. Prison-offences.—The following acts are declared to be prison-offences
when committed by a prisoner :—
(1) such wilful disobedience to any regulation of the prison as shall have been
declared by rules made under section 59 to be a prison-offence ;
(2) any assault or use of criminal force ;
(3) the use of insulting or threatening language ;
(4) immoral or indecent or disorderly behaviour ;
(5) wilfully disabling himself from labour ;
(6) contumaciously refusing to work ;
(7) filling, cutting, altering or removing handcuffs, fetters or bars without due
authority ;
(8) wilful idleness or negligence at work by any prisoner sentenced to rigorous
imprisonment ;
(9) wilful mismanagement of work by any prisoner sentenced to rigorous
imprisonment ;
(10) wilful damage to prison-property ;
(11) tampering with or defacing history-tickets, records or documents ;
(12) receiving, possessing or transferring any prohibited article ;
(13) feigning illness ;
(14) wilfully bringing a false accusation against any officer or prisoner ;
(15) omitting or refusing to report, as soon as it comes to his knowledge, the
occurrence of any fire, any plot or conspiracy, any escape, attempt or
preparation to escape, and any attack or preparation for attack upon any
prisoner or prison-official ; and
(16) conspiring to escape, or to assist in escaping, or to commit any other of
the offences aforesaid.
SYNOPSIS
1. Prison vices. Imposed without prior opportunity of
2. Punishment not to be hearing.
1. Prison vices.- Jail authority need not take action against the prisoners
indulging in vices but in the situation in which they are placed a sympathetic
approach is also required. [Rama Murthy v. State of Karnataka, 1997 Cri Lj 1508
at 1517 (SC) : AIR 1997 SC 1739 : 1997 AIR SCW 929].
2. Punishment not to be imposed without prior opportunity of hearing.- The
District and Session Judge shall ensure that as and when the Prison Authority
forward any papers pertaining to punishment for this confirmation. The
concerned prisoner is kept present before him and given an opportunity of
making representation against the proposed punishment of which confirmation is
sought. [Muktaram Sitaram Shinde v. State of Maharastra, 1997 Cri Lj 3458 at
3463 (Bom).]
46. Punishment.- The Superintendent may examine any person to touching
any such offence, and determine thereupon, and punish such offence by—
(1) a formal warning :
Explanation.— A formal warning shall mean a warning personally addressed
to a prisoner by the Superintendent and recorded in the punishment-book and on the
prisoner’s history-ticket ;
(2) change of labour to some more irksome or severe form 2[for such period
as may be prescribed by rules made by the State Government;
(3) hard labour for a period not exceeding seven days in the case of convicted
criminal prisoners not sentenced to rigorous imprisonment ;
(4) such loss of privileges admissible under the remission system for the time
being in force as may be prescribed by rules made by the State Government ;
(4-A) forfeiture or reduction of grade, either temporarily or permanently, and
temporary forfeiture of prison privileges;
(5) the substitution of gunny or other coarse fabric for clothing of other
material, not being woollen, for a period which shall not exceed three months;
(6) imposition of handcuffs of such pattern and weight, in such manner and
for such period, as may be prescribed by rules made by the State
Government ;
(7) imposition of fetters of such pattern and weight, in such manner and for
such period, as may be prescribed by rules made by the State Government ;
(8) separate confinement for any period not exceeding months ;
Explanation.—Separate confinement means such confinement with or
without labour as secludes a prisoner from communication with, but not from sight
of, other prisoners, and allows him not less than one hour’s exercise per diem and to
have his meals in association with one or more other prisoners ;
(9) penal diet,—that is, restriction of diet in such manner and subject to such
conditions regarding labour as may be prescribed by the State Government :
Provided that such restriction of diet shall in no case be applied to a prisoner
for more than ninety-six consecutive hours, and shall not be repeated except for a
fresh offence nor until after an interval of one week ;
(10) cellular confinement for any period not exceeding fourteen days :
Provided that after each period of cellular confinement an interval of not less
duration than such period must elapse before the prisoner is again sentenced to
cellular or solitary confinement.
Explanation.—Cellular confinement means such confinement with or without
labour as entirely secludes a prisoner from communication with, but not from sight
of, other prisoners ;
1
[* * *]
(11) penal diet as defined in clause (9) combined with cellular confinement ;
(12) whipping, provided that the number of stripes shall not exceed thirty :
Provided that nothing in this Section shall render any female or civil prisoner
liable to the imposition of any form of handcuffs or fetters, or to whipping.
47. Plurality of punishment, under section 46.—(1) Any two of the
punishments enumerated in the last foregoing Section may be awarded for any such
offence in combination, subject to the following exceptions, namely :—
(1) formal warning shall not be combined with any other punishment except
loss of privileges under clause (4) of that section ;
(2) penal diet shall not be combined with change of labour under clause (2) of
that section, nor shall any additional period of penal diet awarded singly be
combined with any period of penal diet awarded in combination with
cellular confinement ;
(3) cellular confinement shall not he combined with separate confinement, so
as to prolong the total period of seclusion to which the prisoner shall be liable ;
(4) whipping shall not be combined with any other form of punishment except
cellular and separate confinement and loss of privileges admissible under the
remission system ;
(5) no punishment will be combined with any other punishment in
contravention of rules made by the State Government.
(2) No punishment shall be awarded for any such offence so as to combine,
with the punishment awarded for any other such offence two of the punishment which
may not be awarded in combination for any such offence.
48. Award of punishments under sections 46 and 47.—(1) The
Superintendent shall have power to award any of the punishments enumerated in the
two last foregoing sections, subject, in the case of separate confinement for a period
exceeding one month, to the previous confirmation of the Inspector-General.
(2) No officer subordinate to the Superintendent shall have power to award
any punishment whatever.
49. Punishments to be in accordance with foregoing sections.— Except by
order of a Court of Justice, no punishment other than the punishments specified in the
foregoing sections shall be inflicted on any prisoner, and no punishment shall be
inflicted on any prisoner otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of those
sections.
50. Medical Officer to certify to fitness of prisoner for punishment.—
(1) No punishment of penal diet, either singly or in combination, or of
whipping, or of change of labour under section 46, clause (2), shall be executed until
the prisoner to whom such punishment has been awarded has been examined by the
Medical Officer, who, if he considers the prisoner fit to undergo the punishment, shall
certify accordingly in the appropriate column of the punishment-book prescribed in
section 12.
(2) If he considers the prisoner unfit to undergo the punishment, he shall in
like manner record his opinion in writing and shall state whether the prisoner is
absolutely unfit for punishment of the kind awarded, or whether he considers any
modification necessary.
(3) In the latter case he shall state what extent of punishment he thinks the
prisoner can undergo without injury to his health.
51. Entries in punishment-books.—(1) In the punishment-book prescribed in
section 12 there shall be recorded, in respect of every punishment inflicted, the
prisoner’s name, register number and the class (whether habitual or not) to which he
belongs, the prison-offence of which he was guilty, the date on which such prisonoffence was committed, the number of previous prison-offences recorded against the
Prisoner, and the date of his last prison-offence, the punishment awarded, and the date
of infliction.
(2) In the case of every serious prison-offence, the names of the witnesses
proving the offence shall be recorded, and, in the case of offences for which whipping
is awarded, the Superintendent shall record the substance of the evidence of the
witnesses, the defence of the prisoner, and the finding with the reasons therefor.
(3) Against the entries relating to each punishment the Jailor and
Superintendent shall affix their initials as evidence of the correctness of the entries.
COMMENT
Prison Officer- No witness examined at enquiry to prove.- If the names of
the two co-prisoners are not to be found in column 10. There is no reason why the
necessary inference to be followed that the two co-prisoners were never examined at
all should not be drawn on the basis of the document filed by the respondent No.1
himself. [D.H. Walcott v. Central Prison, Nagpur, 1972 Cri Lj 673 at 679 (Bom)]
52. Procedure on committal of heinous offence.—If any prisoner is guilty of
any offence against prison-discipline which, by reason of his having frequently
committed such offences or otherwise, in the opinion of the Superintendent, is not
adequately punishable by the infliction of any punishment which he has power under
this Act to award, the Superintendent may forward such prisoner to the Court of the
District Magistrate or of any Magistrate of the first class or Presidency Magistrate
having jurisdiction, together with a statement of the circumstances, and such
Magistrate shall thereupon inquire into and try the charge so brought against the
prisoner, and, upon conviction, may sentence him to imprisonment which may extend
to one year, such term to be in addition to any term for which such prisoner was
undergoing imprisonment when he committed such offence, or may sentence him to
any of the punishments enumerated in section 46 :
Provided that any such case may be transferred for inquiry and trial by the
District Magistrate to any Magistrate of the first class and by a Chief Presidency
Magistrate to any other Presidency Magistrate : and
Provided also that no person shall be punished twice for the same offence.
COMMENT
Act of going on hunger strike is an offence under Section 52 of Prison Act.-
In the interest of maintaining discipline in jails, the refusal to take food by a prisoner
has been made an offence. [Lakshmi Narain v. State, 1959 Cri Lj 283 at 284 : AIR
1959 All 164 (DB)]
53. Whipping.—(1) No punishment of whipping shall be inflicted in
instalments, or except in the presence of the Superintendent and Medical Officer or
Medical Subordinate.
(2) Whipping shall be inflicted with a light ratan not less than half an inch in
diameter on the buttocks, and in case of prisoners under the age of sixteen it shall be
inflicted, in the way of school discipline, with a lighter ratan.
54. Offences by prison-subordinates.—(1) Every Jailor or officer of a prison
subordinate to him who shall be guilty of any violation of duty or wilful breach or
neglect of any rule or regulation or lawful order made by competent authority, or who
shall withdraw from the duties of his office without permission, or without having
given previous notice in writing of his intention for the period of two months, or who
shall wilfully overstay any leave granted to him, or who shall engage without
authority in any employment other than his prison-duty, or who shall be guilty of
cowardice, shall be liable, on conviction before a Magistrate, to fine not exceeding
two hundred rupees, or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months, or
to both.
(2) No person shall under this section be punished twice for the same offence.