Indian Penal Code 1860 Hindi 1.8.0

The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the main criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted in 1860 on the recommendations of the first law commission of India established in 1834 under the Charter Act of 1833 under the Chairmanship of Thomas Babington Macaulay. It came into force in British India during the early British Raj period in 1862. However, it did not apply automatically in the Princely states, which had their own courts and legal systems until the 1940s. The Code has since been amended several times and is now supplemented by other criminal provisions.

After the partition of the British Indian Empire, the Indian Penal Code was inherited by its successor states, the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, where it continues independently as the Pakistan Penal Code. The Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) applicable in Jammu and Kashmir is also based on this Code. After the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, the code continued in force there. The Code was also adopted by the British colonial authorities in Colonial Burma, Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), the Straits Settlements (now part of Malaysia), Singapore and Brunei. Today, it remains the basis of criminal codes in those countries.

The draft of the Indian Penal Code was prepared by the First Law Commission chaired by Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1835 and was submitted to Governor-General of India Council in 1837. Its basis is the law of England freed from superfluities, technicalities, and local peculiarities. Elements were also derived from the Napoleonic Code and from Edward Livingston's Louisiana Civil Code of 1825. The first final draft of the Indian Penal Code was submitted to the Governor-General of India in Council in 1837, but it was revised again before completion in 1850.

The objective of this Act is to provide a general penal code for India without repealing pre-existing laws at its inception. This was to ensure that all possible offences were accounted for under the law's jurisdiction.

The Indian Penal Code of 1860 is subdivided into twenty-three chapters, comprising five hundred and eleven sections. The Code begins with an introduction, provides explanations and exceptions used within, and covers an extensive range of offenses.