(Received, the assent of the Governor General on the 25th April 1872)
An Act to provide for the trial of offences committed in places beyond British India and for the Extradition of Criminals.
PREAMBLE
Preamble. Whereas by treaty, capitulation, agreement, grant, usage, sufferance and other lawful means, the Governor General of India in Council has power and jurisdiction within divers places beyond the limits of British India; and whereas such power and jurisdiction have from time to time been delegated to Political Agents and others acting under the authority of the Governor General in Council; and whereas doubts have arisen how far the exercise of such power and jurisdiction and the delegation thereof, are controlled by and dependent on the laws of British India; and whereas it is expedient to remove such doubts and to consolidate and amend the law relating to the exercise and delegation of such power and jurisdiction and to offences committed by British subjects beyond the limits of British India and to the extradition of criminals; It is enacted as follows:
This Act may be called The Foreign Jurisdiction and Extradition Act, 1872
It extends to the whole of British India;
Extent. to all Native Indian subjects of Her Majesty without and beyond the Indian territories under the dominion of Her Majesty; and
to all European British subjects within the dominions of Princes and States in India in alliance with Her Majesty;
Commencement. and it shall come into force on the passing thereof.
The enactments mentioned in the first schedule hereto annexed are repealed to the extent specified in the third column thereof.
In this Act the expression Political Agent means and includes
(1) the principal officer representing the British Indian Government in any territory or place beyond the limits of British India;
(2) any officer in British India appointed by the Governor General in Council, or the Governor in Council of the Presidency of Port St. George or Bombay, to exercise all or any of the powers of a Political Agent under this Act for any place not forming part of British India:
Native State. Native State means.
in reference to Native Indian subjects of Her Majesty, all places without and beyond the Indian territories under the dominion of Her Majesty; and,
in reference to European British subjects, the dominions of Princes and States in India in alliance with Her Majesty.
The Governor General in Council may exercise any power or jurisdiction which the Governor General in Council now has, or may at any time hereafter have, within any country or place beyond the limits of British India; and may delegate the same to any servant of the British Indian Government, in such manner and to such extent as to the Governor General in Council from time to time seems fit.
A notification in the Gazette of India of the exercise by the Governor General in Council of any such power or jurisdiction and of the delegation thereof by him to any person or class of persons and of the rules of procedure or other conditions to which such persons are to conform and of the local area within which their powers are to be exercised, shall, he conclusive proof in any Court of the truth of the matters stated in the notification.
The Governor General in Council may appoint any European British subject, either by name or by virtue of his office, in any such country or place, to be a Justice of the Peace; and every such Justice of the Peace shall have all the powers conferred on Magistrates of the first class, who are Justices of the Peace and European British subjects, by any law for the time being in force in British India relating to Criminal Procedure. The Governor General in Council may direct to what Court having jurisdiction over European British subjects any such Justice of the Peace is to commit for trial.
All Political-Agents and all Justices of the Peace heretofore appointed by the Governor General in Council, or the Governor in Council of the Presidency of Port St. George or Bombay, in any such country or place as aforesaid, shall be deemed to be and to have been appointed and to have and to have had jurisdiction, under the provisions of this Act.
The law relating to offences and to Criminal Procedure for the time being in force-in British India shall, subject as to procedure to such modifications as the Governor General in Council from time to time directs, extend to all British subjects, European and Native, in Native States.
All British subjects, European and Native, in British India may be dealt with, in respect of offences committed by them in any Native State, as if such offences had been committed in any place within British India in which any such subject may be or may be found:
Political Agent to certify fitness of inquiry into charge. Provided that no charge as to any such offence shall be inquired into in British India, unless the Political Agent, if there be such, for the territory in which the offence is said to have been committed, certifies that, in his opinion, the charge is one which ought to be inquired into in British India:
Provided also that any proceedings taken against any person under this suction, which would be a bar to subsequent proceedings against such person for the same offence, if such offence had been committed in British India, shall be a bar against further proceedings against him, under this Act, in respect of the same offence in any Native State.
Whenever any such offence as is referred to in section nine is being inquired into or tried, the Local Government may, if it thinks fit, direct that copies of depositions made or exhibits produced before the Political Agent or a Judicial Officer in the State in which such offence is alleged to have been committed shall be received as evidence by the Court holding such inquiry or trial, in any case in which such Court might issue a commission for taking evidence as to the matters to which, such depositions or exhibits relate.
When an offence has been committed, or is supposed to have been committed, in any State against the law of such State by a person not being a European British subject and such person escapes into or is in British India, the Political Agent for such State may issue a warrant for his arrest and delivery at a place in such State and to a person to be named in the warrant,
if such Political Agent thinks that the offence is one which ought to be inquired into in such State,
and if the act said to have been done would, if done in British India, have constituted an offence against any of the sections of the Indian Penal Code mentioned in the second schedule hereto, or under any other section of the said Code or any other law which may, from time to Time, he specified by the Governor General in Council by a notification in the Gazette.
Such warrant may be directed to the Magistrate of any district in which the accused person is believed to be; and shall he executed in the manner provided by the law for the time being in force with reference to the execution of warrants; and the accused person, when arrested, shall he forwarded to the place and delivered to the officer named in the warrant.
Such Political Agent may either dispose of the case himself, or may give over the person so forwarded, whether he be a Native Indian subject of Her Majesty or not, to be tried by the ordinary Courts of the State in which the offence was committed, if he is generally or specially directed to do so by the Governor General in Council, or by the Governors in Council of the Presidency of Port St. George or Bombay respectively.
Whenever a requisition is made to the Governor General in Council or any Local Government, by or by the authority of the persons for the time being administering the executive government of any part of the dominions of Her Majesty, or the territory of any Foreign Prince or State, that any person accused of having committed an offence in such dominions or territory should be given up, the Governor General in Council or such Local Government, as the case may he, may issue an order to any Magistrate who would have had jurisdiction to inquire into the offence if it had been committed within his local jurisdiction, directing him to inquire into the truth of such accusation.
The Magistrate so directed shall issue a summons or warrant for the arrest of such person, according as the offence named appears to be one for which a summons or warrant would ordinarily issue; and shall inquire into the truth of such accusation and shall report thereon to the Government by which he was directed to hold the said inquiry. If, upon receipt of such report, such Government is of opinion that the accused person ought to be given up to the persons making such requisition, it may issue a warrant for the custody and removal of such accused person and for his delivery at a place and to a person to be named in the warrant.
The provisions of section ten shall apply to inquiries held under this section.
This section shall not affect the provisions of any law or treaty for the time being in force as to the extradition of offenders; but the procedure provided by any such law or treaty shall be followed in every case to which it applies.
The Governor General in Council may make and may from time to time alter, rules to provide for
(1) the confinement, diet and prison discipline of British subjects, European or Native, imprisoned by Political Agents under this Act;
(2) the removal of accused persons under this Act and their control and maintenance until such time as they-are handed over to the persons named in the warrant, as entitled to receive them;
(3) and generally to carry out the purposes of this Act.
SCHEDULE I
Enactments Repealed
[See Section 2]
| Number and year. |
Title |
Extent of repeal. |
| 26 Geo. III, Cap. 57. |
An Act for the further Regulation of the trial of Persons accused of certain offences committed in the East Indies; for repealing so much, of an Act, made in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of his present Majesty (intitule An Act for the better Regulation and Management of the Affaire of the East India Company and of the British Possessions in India and for establishing a Court of Judicature for the more speedy and effectual trial of Persons accused of Offences committed in the East Indies), as requires the Servants of the East India Company to deliver Inventories of their Estates and Effects; for rendering the Laws more effectual against Persons unlawfully resorting to the East Indies; and for the more easy proof, in certain eases, of Deeds and Writings executed in Great Britain or India. |
Section twenty-nine. |
| 33 Geo. III, Cap. 52. |
An Act for continuing in the East India Company, for a further term, the possession of the British Territories in India, together with their exclusive Trade, under certain limitations for establishing further Regulations for the government of the said Territories and the better Administration of Justice within the same; for appropriating to certain uses the Revenues and Profits of the said Company and for making provision for the good order and government of the Towns of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. |
Section sixty-seven. |
| Act I of 1849. |
An Act to provide more effectually for the punishment of offences committed in Foreign States. |
So much as is unrepealed. |
| Act VII of 1854. |
An Act for the apprehension, within the territories under the Government of the Bast India Company, of persons charged with the commission of heinous offences beyond the limits of the said territories and for delivering them up to Justice and to provide for the execution of warrants in places out of the Jurisdiction of the authorities issuing them. |
So much as is unrepealed. |
SCHEDULE II
Sections of the Indian Penal Code Refereed to in Section 11.
Sections 280 to 268, both inclusive; Sections 299 to 304, both inclusive; Sections 807, 310 and 311; Sections 812 to 817, both inclusive; Sections 823 to 388, both inclusive; Sections 847 and 848; Sections 860 to 873, both inclusive; Sections 875 to 877, both inclusive; Sections 378 to 414, both inclusive; Sections 485 to 440, both inclusive; Sections 448 to 446, both inclusive; Sections 464 to 468, both inclusive; Sections 471 to 477, both inclusive.