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Quantum of Punshment In A Criminal Trial
1. Introduction:
Punishment is a sanction such as a fimr, prnalty, confinement or losss of property, right or privilege, assessed against a person who has violated the law.
2. Definition:
(i) According to Glanville Williams:
Punishment in all its forms is a loss of rights or advantages consquent on a breach of law. When it losses this quality, it degenerates into an arbitrary act of violence that can produce nothing but bad social effects.
(ii) Yardstick for Determining Quantum of Punishment:
Principle object of punishment is the prevention of offences, and the measure of punishment must, consequently, vary from time to time according to the prevalence of a particular form of crime and other circumstances.
(iii)1998 PCr.LJ 1946:
Sentencing in a rational society is a difficult and often delicate task. The competing demands of the victim, the society and the state have to be kept in view while prescribing any punishment for a crime. The punishment should satisfy the retributive teeth of the wronged, should be adequate enough to serve as deterrence for would-be offenders and should also cater for the social morality. We have attended to the question of sentence keeping these factors in view.
3. Question Of Appropriate Sentence:
PLD 1956 BJ 5: The questiion of appropriate sentence is not onw of law. Opinion of one court with regard to the sentence that has been passed in a particular case has no binding force on any other court even though the former court may have been superior to the latter. A court called upon to pass a sentence for a crime has to take alll the circumstances of the case into consideration and the quantum of punishment imposed in other cases cannot be of much assistance.
4. Object Of Punishment As Yardstick:
The following objects of punishment also work as the yardstick for determining the quantum of punishment:
(i) Punishment is to serve as a deterrent.
(ii) Punishment is to be preventive.
(iii) Punishment is to be reformative, and
(iv) Punishment is to be retributive.
5. Punishment For Reforming The Society:
The main object of punishment is to reform the society by holding out deterrents as precedents. Punishment must be felt as punishment by the offender. It must be commensurate with the degree of shock that it causes to the conscience of the society. Therefore, the measure of punishment varies according to the prevalence of the particular form of the offence.
6. Court's Duty Regarding Punishment:
Every court must award the sentence suited according to the nature of to the offence and the offender, and not make the sentence sialler because of any doudt regarding the commission of the offence itself, nor should the court be influenced by the fact that the decisiion is applicable.
7. Measures In Case of Harsh Punishment:
(i) Old age of the offender.
(ii) It is the offender's first offence.
(iii) Exceeding right of private defence.
(iv) When a cse is kept pending for an unduly long time.
1. Introduction:
Punishment is a sanction such as a fimr, prnalty, confinement or losss of property, right or privilege, assessed against a person who has violated the law.
2. Definition:
(i) According to Glanville Williams:
Punishment in all its forms is a loss of rights or advantages consquent on a breach of law. When it losses this quality, it degenerates into an arbitrary act of violence that can produce nothing but bad social effects.
(ii) Yardstick for Determining Quantum of Punishment:
Principle object of punishment is the prevention of offences, and the measure of punishment must, consequently, vary from time to time according to the prevalence of a particular form of crime and other circumstances.
(iii)1998 PCr.LJ 1946:
Sentencing in a rational society is a difficult and often delicate task. The competing demands of the victim, the society and the state have to be kept in view while prescribing any punishment for a crime. The punishment should satisfy the retributive teeth of the wronged, should be adequate enough to serve as deterrence for would-be offenders and should also cater for the social morality. We have attended to the question of sentence keeping these factors in view.
3. Question Of Appropriate Sentence:
PLD 1956 BJ 5: The questiion of appropriate sentence is not onw of law. Opinion of one court with regard to the sentence that has been passed in a particular case has no binding force on any other court even though the former court may have been superior to the latter. A court called upon to pass a sentence for a crime has to take alll the circumstances of the case into consideration and the quantum of punishment imposed in other cases cannot be of much assistance.
4. Object Of Punishment As Yardstick:
The following objects of punishment also work as the yardstick for determining the quantum of punishment:
(i) Punishment is to serve as a deterrent.
(ii) Punishment is to be preventive.
(iii) Punishment is to be reformative, and
(iv) Punishment is to be retributive.
5. Punishment For Reforming The Society:
The main object of punishment is to reform the society by holding out deterrents as precedents. Punishment must be felt as punishment by the offender. It must be commensurate with the degree of shock that it causes to the conscience of the society. Therefore, the measure of punishment varies according to the prevalence of the particular form of the offence.
6. Court's Duty Regarding Punishment:
Every court must award the sentence suited according to the nature of to the offence and the offender, and not make the sentence sialler because of any doudt regarding the commission of the offence itself, nor should the court be influenced by the fact that the decisiion is applicable.
7. Measures In Case of Harsh Punishment:
(i) Old age of the offender.
(ii) It is the offender's first offence.
(iii) Exceeding right of private defence.
(iv) When a cse is kept pending for an unduly long time.