Act X of 1886. Act V of 1887. Suggested amendments of subject was ordinarily triable was a Native, and the substitution for section 451 of three sections enabling a European British subject (a) in a trial before the Sessions Court with the aid of assessors, to require that not less than half their number shall be Europeans or Americans, or both Europeans and Americans; and (b) in a trial before a District Magistrate, to claim that the trial shall be by a jury similarly composed. The second of these Acts, No. X of 1886, amended the drafting of sections 31, 34, 110, 162, 266, 269, 398, 401 and 510. It extended sections 55 and 56 to the police in the towns of Calcutta and Bombay. It extended to Chief Presidency Magistrates the provisions as to endorsement in sections 88 and 514. It allowed the Local Government to regulate the practice of submitting final police reports through a superior officer of police. It also allowed the Local Government, with the previous sanction of the Governor General in Council, to prescribe the rank of the police officer who may conduct prosecutions. It empowered the Governor General in Council to direct criminal lunatics confined by order of the Local Government to be removed from one province to another. It empowered the Local Government to relieve the Inspector General of jails of his functions under sections 472, 473 and 474. It provided for the removal to a criminal jail of accused or convicted persons who are in confinement in a civil jail and their return to the civil jail. And it forbade officers concerned in sales under the Code to purchase or bid for the property sold. There is a corresponding section (292) in the Code of Civil Procedure. All these changes are improvements. The third Act, V of 1887, merely amends the definition of ' Officer in charge of a police station,' and in section 312 substitutes the word 'four' for the word 'two.' The object of the latter change is to increase the number of names in the special jurors' list in each Presidency-town. It is to be hoped that the result will not be to lessen seriously the number of respectable and intelligent persons available as common jurors. When the Code is next altered, it would be well to repeal and re-enact, as a separate law, the chapter on the maintenance of the Code. wives and children; to insert sections as to the mode of pleading the defences of want of jurisdiction, previous acquittal, previous conviction, and limitation; to alter the place of section 403; to make in sections 110, 145, 244, 350, 406, 437, and 443 the amendments above suggested; to explain and illustrate the expression 'presumed or actual partiality' in section 278; and to correct the clerical errors, mentioned infra, in sections 362, 551, and 552. Existing Divisions and Districts maintained till altered Presidency-towns to be deemed Districts Power to divide Districts into Sub-divisions Existing Sub-divisions maintained . (c) COURTS AND OFFICES OUTSIDE THE PRESIDENCY-TOWNS. Powers exercisable by Bench in absence of special direction Power to frame rules for guidance of Benches. Subordination of Magistrates and Benches to District Magistrate Subordination of Assistant Sessions Judges to Sessions Judge. ib. Offences under Penal Code Offences under other laws Offences not punishable with death. (b) SENTENCES WHICH MAY BE PASSED BY COURTS OF VARIOUS CLASSES. Sentences which High Courts and Sessions Judges may pass Sentences which Magistrates may pass Power of Magistrates to sentence to imprisonment in default of fine Higher powers of certain District Magistrates. Sentence in cases of conviction of several offences at one trial. Maximum term of punishment SECTION Village headmen, landholders and others bound to report certain matters 45 Arrest of vagabonds, habitual robbers, etc. Procedure when police-officer deputes subordinate to arrest without warrant Provisions of sections 47, 48 and 49 to apply to arrests under section 66. 67 Service when person summoned cannot be found Procedure when receipt cannot be obtained Service on servant of Government or of Railway Company Service of summons outside local limits . Proof of service in such cases, and when serving officer not present. Warrant forwarded to Magistrate for execution outside jurisdiction Attachment of property of person absconding Restoration of attached property |