Act 035 of 2000 : Border Security Force (Amendment) Act, 2000

Preamble

Border Security Force (Amendment) Act, 20001

[Act 35 of 2000][1st September, 2000]

[Repealed by Act 19 of 2015*]

An Act further to amend the Border Security Force Act, 1968

Be it enacted by Parliament in the Fifty-first Year of the Republic of India as follows:-

1 Received the assent of the President on 1-9-2000 and published in the Gazette of India, Extra., Part II, Section 1.

* Ed.: Act 35 of 2000 repealed by Act 19 of 2015, S. 2 & Sch. I. See also S. 4 of the Repealing and Amending Act, 2015:

"4. Savings.- The repeal by this Act of any enactment shall not affect any Act in which such enactment has been applied, incorporated or referred to;

and this Act shall not affect the validity, invalidity, effect or consequences of anything already done or suffered, or any right, title, obligation or liability already acquired, accrued or incurred, or any remedy or proceeding in respect thereof, or any release or discharge of or from any debt, penalty, obligation, liability, claim or demand, or any indemnity already granted, or the proof of any past act or thing;

nor shall this Act affect any principle or rule of law, or established jurisdiction, form or course of pleading, practice or procedure, or existing usage, custom, privilege, restriction, exemption, office or appointment, notwithstanding that the same respectively may have been in any manner affirmed, recognised or derived by, in or from any enactment hereby repealed;

nor shall the repeal by this Act of any enactment provide or restore any jurisdiction, office, custom, liability, right, title, privilege, restriction, exemption, usage, practice, procedure or other matter or thing not now existing or in force."

SOR Statement of Objects and Reasons

Prefatory Note-Statement of Objects and Reasons.-The Border Security Force Act, 1968 (47 of 1968) was enacted to provide for the constitution and regulation of an Armed Force of the Union for ensuring the security of the borders of India and for matters connected therewith.

2. In Union of India and Others v. Anand Singh Bisht, (1996) 10 Supreme Court Cases 153, the Supreme Court of India has held that "a provision similar to Section 428 of the Criminal Procedure Code or Section 169-A of the Army Act should be incorporated in the Border Security Force Act so as to safeguard the interest of the undertrial accused in the Border Security Force, because a member of Border Security Force when subjected to court-martial is not entitled to the benefit of Section 428 Criminal Procedure Code. It is only desirable that such amendment should be made without delay." It is, therefore, proposed to amend the Border Security Force Act, 1968 with a view to insert a new provision in the said Act on the lines of Section 169-A of the Army Act, 1950 to provide for setting off the period of pre-trial detention against the sentence of imprisonment imposed on a person governed by the Border Security Force Act, 1968.

3. The Bill seeks to achieve the aforesaid object.

Section 1. Short title

1. Short title.-This Act may be called the Border Security Force (Amendment) Act, 2000.

Section 2. Insertion of new Section 121-A

2. Insertion of new Section 121-A.-In the Border Security Force Act, 1968 (47 of 1968) after Section 121, the following section shall be inserted, namely:-

"121-A. Period of custody undergone by a person to be set-off against the imprisonment.-When any person subject to this Act is sentenced by a Security Force Court to a term of imprisonment, not being an imprisonment in default of payment of fine, the period spent by him in civil or Force custody during investigation, inquiry or trial of the same case, and before the date of order of such sentence, shall be set-off against the term of imprisonment imposed upon him, and the liability of such person to undergo imprisonment on such order of sentence shall be restricted to the remainder, if any, of the term of imprisonment imposed upon him.".

SECTIONS