This Act may be called The Prisoners' Act, 1871 :

Local extent. It extends to the whole of British India;

Commencement. And it shall come into force on the passing thereof.

The Acts mentioned in the Schedule hereto annexed are repealed to the extent specified in the third column of the said Schedule.

All writs or warrants for the arrest of apprehension of any person, issued or awarded by the High Court in the exercise of its ordinary, extraordinary, or other criminal jurisdiction, shall be directed to and executed by any officer of Police within the local limits of such jurisdiction.

The Local Government may appoint officers who shall have authority to receive and keep prisoners committed to their custody under the provisions of this Part.

All such officers appointed under any Act hereby repealed, shall be deemed to be appointed under this Act.

Such officers shall he called, in Calcutta, the Superintendent of the Presidency Prison, in Madras, the Superintendent Superintendent of Prisons for the town of Madras, and in Bombay, by such title or respective titles as the Local Government from time to time directs.

Every such officer is hereinafter referred to as the Superintendent.

The Superintendent is hereby authorized and required to keep and detain all persons duly committed to his custody pursuant to the provisions of this Act, or otherwise, by any Court, Judge, Justice of the Peace, Magistrate of Police, Coroner, or other public officer lawfully exercising civil or criminal jurisdiction according to the exigency, of any writ, warrant or order by which such person has been committed, or until such person is discharged by due course of law.

The Superintendent shall forthwith after the execution of every such writ, order, or warrant, except warrants of commitment for tidal, or after the discharge of the person committed thereby, return such writ, order, or warrant to the Court or other officer by which or by whom the same has been issued or made, together with a certificate endorsed thereon and signed by the Superintendent, showing bow the same has been executed, or why the person committed thereby has been discharged from custody before the execution thereof.

Whenever any person is sentenced by the High Court in the exercise of its original criminal jurisdiction to imprisonment or to death, the Court shall cause him to be delivered to the said Superintendent, together with the warrant of the said Court, and such warrant shall he executed by the Superintendent and returned by him to the High Court when executed.

Whenever any person is sentenced by the High Court in the exercise of its original criminal jurisdiction to transportation or penal servitude, the Court shall cause him to be delivered for intermediate custody to the Superintendent, and the imprisonment of such person shall have effect from such delivery.

Whenever any Judge of a High Court makes, under any Act for the time being in force for punishing mutiny and desertion, and for the better payment of the Army and their quarters, an order for the intermediate custody of an offender sentenced by a Court Martial holden in India, the Judge shall order such offender to be detained for intermediate custody by the Superintendent.

Whenever any person is committed by the High Court, whether in execution of a decree or for contempt of Court, or other cause, he shall be taken by the officer to be appointed for that purpose by such Court, and shall he delivered to the Superintendent, together with a warrant of commitment.

Whenever any person is sentenced by a Magistrate of Police for the town of Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay, to imprisonment, either absolutely or for default of payment of any fine imposed by any such Magistrate, or is committed to prison for failure to find security to keep the peace and to be of good behaviour, the Magistrate shall cause him to be delivered to the Superintendent, together with a warrant of the Court.

Every person committed by a Justice of the Peace or Magistrate or Coroner for trial by the High Court in the exercise of its original criminal jurisdiction shall he delivered to the Superintendent, together with a warrant of commitment, directing him to have the body of such person before the Court for trial, and the Superintendent shall, as soon as practicable, cause such person to be taken before the Court at a Criminal Session of the said Court, together with the warrant of commitment, in order that he may be dealt with according to law.

Pending any such enquiry as is mentioned in section eight of Act No. XXIII of 1861 (to amend Act VIII of 1859), which the High Court considers it necessary to make, the defendant may be delivered by the officer of the said Court to the Superintendent, subject to the provisions as to deposit of fees and as to release on security contained in the same section,

and the Superintendent is hereby authorized and required to detain such defendant in safe custody until lie is re-delivered to the officer of the Court for the purpose of being taken before the said Court in pursuance of an order of the said Court or of a Judge thereof, or until he is released by due course of law.

Every person arrested in pursuance of a writ, warrant, or order of the High Court, in the exercise of its original civil jurisdiction,

or in pursuance of a warrant of any Court established in Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay under Act No. IX of 1850 (for the more easy recovery of small debts and, demands in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay),

or in pursuance of a warrant issued under section three of this Act,

shall he brought without delay before the Court by which, or by a Judge of which, the writ, warrant, or order was issued, awarded, or made, or before a Judge thereof, if the said Court, or a Judge thereof, is then sitting for the exercise of original jurisdiction;

and if such Court, or a Judge thereof, is not then sitting for the exercise of original jurisdiction, shall, unless a Judge of the said Court otherwise orders, be delivered to the Superintendent for intermediate custody, and shall be brought before the said Court, or a Judge thereof, at the next sitting of the said Court, or of a Judge thereof, for the exercise of original jurisdiction, in order that such person may be dealt with according to law;

and the said Court or Judge shall have power to make or award all necessary orders or warrants for that purpose.

Any warrant of commitment under Regulation III of 1818 of the Bengal Code (for the Confinement of State Prisoners), Regulation II of 1819 of the Madras Code (for the Confinement of State Prisoners), and Regulation XXY of 1827 of the Bombay Code (for the Confinement of State Prisoners, and for the Attachment of the Lands of Chieftains and others, for Reasons of State), may be directed to the Superintendent in the same manner as the same might have been directed to the Sheriff under Act No. XXXIV of 1850 (for the better Custody of State Prisoners), and Act No. III of 1858 (to amend the Law relating to the arrest and detention of State Prisoners).

III. Prisoners in the Mofussil.

Officers in charge of prisons situate outside the local limits of the ordinary original civil jurisdictions of the High Courts of Judicature at Port William, Madras and Bombay, shall be competent to give effect to any sentence or order or warrant for the detention of any person passed or issued by any Court or tribunal acting under the authority of Her Majesty, or of the Governor General in Council, or of any Local Government.

A warrant under the official signature of an officer of such Court or tribunal shall be sufficient authority for holding any prisoner in confinement, or for sending any prisoner for transportation beyond sea, in pursuance of the sentence passed upon him.

Any officer in charge of a prison doubting the legality of any warrant sent to him for execution under this Part, or the competency of the person whose official seal and signature are affixed thereto to pass the sentence and issue such warrant, shall refer the matter to the Local Government, by whose order on the case such officer and all other public officers shall be guided as to the future disposal of the prisoner.

Pending any such reference, the prisoner shall he detained in such manner and with such restrictions or mitigations as may he specified in the warrant.

The Local Government may authorize the reception, detention, or imprisonment in any place under such Government, for the periods specified in their respective sentences, of persons sentenced within the territories of any Native Prince or State in alliance with Her Majesty to imprisonment of transportation for any of the following offences:

counterfeiting coin,

uttering counterfeit coin,

murder,

culpable homicide not amounting to murder, being a thug,

voluntarily causing grievous hurt, administering poison,

kidnapping,

selling minors for purposes of prostitution,

rape,

robbery,

dacoity,

dacoity with murder,

robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt,

attempt to commit robbery or dacoity when armed with a deadly weapon,

making preparation to commit dacoity,

belonging to a gang of dacoits,

dishonest misappropriation of property,

breach of trust,

house-burning,

house-breaking,

forgery, and

theft of cattle;

or for an attempt to commit any of the above offences,

or for abetment, within the meaning of the Indian Penal Code, of suicide by burning or burying alive, or of any of the other offences above specified,

or for such other offences as the Governor General in Council, from time to time, by order published in the Gazette of India, thinks fit to prescribe:

Proviso. Provided that such sentences have been pronounced after trial before a tribunal in which an officer of Government, duly authorized in that behalf by such Native Prince or State, or by the Governor General in Council, is one of the presiding Judges.

Every officer of Government so authorized as aforesaid shall forward with every prisoner a certificate of his conviction, and a Copy of proceedings. Copy of the proceedings held at the trial, that the same may be forthcoming for reference at the place where the sentence of imprisonment or transportation is carried into effect.

IV. Convicts sentenced to Penal Servitude.

Every person sentenced to be kept in penal servitude may, during the term of the sentence, be confined in such prison within British India as the Governor General in Council by general order, from time to time, directs;

and may, during such time, he kept to hard labour;

Intermediate imprisonment. and may, until he can conveniently he removed to such prison, be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, and dealt with in all other respects as persons sentenced by the convicting Court to rigorous imprisonment may, for the time being, by law be dealt with.

Time of intermediate imprisonment to court in discharge of sentence. The time of such intermediate imprisonment, and the time of removal from one prison to another, shall he taken and reckoned in discharge or part discharge, of the term of the sentence.

All Acts and Regulations now in force within British India, with respect to convicts under sentence of transportation, or under sentence of imprisonment with hard labour, shall, so far as may he consistent with the express prolusions of this Act, he construed to apply to persons under any sentence of penal servitude.

The Governor General in Council may grant to any convict sentenced to be kept in penal servitude, a license to be at large within British India or in such part thereof as in such license is expressed, during such portion of his term of servitude, and upon such conditions as to the Governor General in Council seem tit.

The Governor General in Council may at any time revoke or alter such license.

So long as such license continues in force and unrevoked, such convict shall not be liable to imprisonment or penal servitude by reason of his sentence, but shall he allowed to go and remain at large according to the terms of such license.

In case of the revocation of any such license as aforesaid, any Secretary to the Government of India may, by order in writing, signify to any Justice of the Peace or Magistrate that such license has been revoked, and require him to issue a warrant for the apprehension of the convict to whom such license was granted, and such Justice or Magistrate shall issue his warrant accordingly.

Such warrant may he executed by any officer to whom it may be directed or delivered for that purpose in any part of British India, and shall have the same force in any place within British India as if it had been originally issued or subsequently endorsed by the Justice of the Peace, or Magistrate, or other authority having jurisdiction in the place where the same is executed.

The convict, when apprehended under such warrant, shall he brought, as soon as conveniently may be, before the Justice or Magistrate by whom it has been issued, or before some other Justice or Magistrate of the same place, or before a Justice or Magistrate having jurisdiction in the district in which the convict is apprehended.

Such Justice or Magistrate shall thereupon make out his warrant under his hand and seal, for the recommitment of the convict to the prison from which he was released by virtue of the said license.

Such convict shall be re-committed accordingly, and shall thereupon be liable to be kept in penal servitude for such further term as, with the time during which lie may have been imprisoned under the original sentence and the time during which he may have been at large under an unrevoked license, is equal to the term mentioned in the original sentence.

If a license be granted under section twenty-three upon any condition specified therein, and the convict to whom the license is granted violates any such condition,

or goes beyond the limits specified in the license,

or, knowing of the revocation of such license, neglects forthwith to surrender himself, or conceals himself, or endeavours to avoid being apprehended,

he shall be liable upon conviction to be sentenced to penal servitude for a term not exceeding the full term of penal servitude mentioned in the original sentence.

V. Removal or Prisoners.

When any person is, or has been, sentenced to imprisonment by any Court, the Local Government, or (subject to its orders and under its control) the Inspector General of Jails, may order his removal during the period prescribed for his imprisonment, from the jail or place in which he is confined to any other jail or place of imprisonment within the territories subject to the same Local Government.

Whenever it appears to the Local Government that any person, detained or imprisoned under any order or sentence of any Magistrate or Court is of unsound mind, such Government, by a warrant setting forth the grounds of belief that such person is of unsound mind, may order his removal to a lunatic asylum, or other fit place of safe custody, within the territories subject to the same Government, there to be kept and treated as the Local Government directs during the remainder of the term of imprisonment ordered by the sentence; or, if it be certified by a medical officer that it is necessary for the safety of the prisoner or others that he should be detained under medical care or treatment, then until he is discharged according to law.

Remand on recovery and Discharge. When it appears to the said Government that such prisoner has become of sound mind, the Local Government, by a warrant directed to the person having charge of the prisoner, shall remand the prisoner to the prison from which he was removed, if then still liable to be kept in custody, or if not, shall order him to be discharged.

Act XXXVI of 1858, section nine, applied to prisoners in lunatic asylum. The provisions of section nine of Act XXXVI of 1858 (relating to Lunatic Asylums) shall apply to every person confined in a lunatic asylum under this section after the expiration of the term of imprisonment to which he has been sentenced; and the time during which he has been so confined shall he reckoned as part of such term.

When any person is, or has been, sentenced to imprisonment by any Court, the Governor General in Council may order his removal during the period prescribed for his imprisonment, from the prison in which he is confined to any other prison in British India.

VI. Management of Transported Convicts.

The Governor General in Council may appoint the Governor or other authority at any place in British India, or one or more Superintendents, at any such place, as the persons to whom convicts undergoing transportation shall be delivered.

The Governor General in Council may, from time to time, prescribe rules as to the following matters:

the classification of convicts;

their confinement, treatment, discipline, and employment;

their punishment for misbehaviour, disorderly conduct, neglect, or disobedience; and

the manner in which the proceeds (if any) of their employment shall be disposed of.

VII. Discharge of Convicts.

Any Court established under the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of Victoria, chapter one hundred and four, may in any case in which it has recommended to Her Majesty the granting of a free pardon to any convict, permit him to be at liberty on his own recognizance.

SCHEDULE

(See section 2.)