Report On The Administration Of Criminal Justice In The Punjab And Its Dependencies During The Year 1869

· 1870 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

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2As compared with the previous year there is an increase of 16 per cent,

3in cases against property, and a slight decrease in the number of cases affec-

4ting the human body.

519, Ino 11 out ofthe 32 districts, there has been an increase in the

6Railable caren brought oo T’Mbor of hailable cases brought to: trial, and in the

7me remaining 21, a decrease. The increase is most notice-

8able in the districts of Gurdispdr (83 per cent), Multan (55 per cent ),

9Gurgaon (40 per cont), Jchlam (36 per cont), Gujrdt ( 26 per cent ).

10The result for the province is a decrease of 7 per cent.

11The increase in Gurdispar may be considered as in reat. part no-

12minal owing to the transfer to that District of the Pereannah of Buttalah.

13\

14In Multan the inercase is partly atiributable to the increased num-

15ber of prosecutions in the’ Courts of the Canal Officers.

16An inercase in the Simla district is attributed by the Deputy Com-

17missioner to the greater number of prosecutions under the Cantonment Act,

18owing to the vigilance of the authoriticsfin gnforcing Sanitary rules.

1920. The opinions of officerr on the effect of the Stamp Law on' the num-

20ceeaeataaantag. OMe of f pror-dutions instituted’ vary considerably. Seve-

21ee alata «1 Deputy Commuissioncrs have attributed the decrease

22in bailable offences to the imposition ofa stamp duty; but in some districts

23itis clear that it did not so operate. The Deputy Commissioner of Sirsa

24remarks that although during 1869 the stamp duty did operate as a bar to

25prosecutions it would not do so in ordinary years when scarcity did

26not cxist.

2721. The peculiar circumstances of ile year under report render it

28unsafe, the Judges think, to draw any general conclusion or to pronounce upon

29(he effeet of the stamp duty in increasing or diminishing the number of pro-

30secutions. In last year's report it was shewn that prosecutions for the offence

31of Assault and the coguate offences of Causing Hurt and using Criminal

32force, and also the number of persons prosecuted for enticing’ away a married

33woman, and, for maintenance of wives and children, had increased since the

34introduction of the law requiring complaints in such cases to be stamped s

35and this was adduced as an argument to prove that the imposition of the

36duty had no effect in reducing the number of complaints of petty offences,