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Community Service As Punishment

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Community service constitute an apologetic reparation that the person is now required to make to the community what he has wronged. The Indian Penal Code was the enacted in 1860 by virtue of the classic legal draftsmanship of Lord Macaulay. If there would have been a concept of community service prevalent at that time then the authors are sure that there would have been no need to urge the inclusion of the same in the Indian Penal Code. But since this exclusion by Macaulay is because of no fault of his it is our duty to incorporate such to meet the demands of the time and to make the IPC a living social document. Section 53 of the IPC [2] provides for the various types of punishments. But these are old and do not meet the exigencies of the …show more content…

[23] Then an Amendment bill [24] was introduced in the Parliament [25] which was passed in the Rajya Sabha but due to the proclamation of emergency it could not be passed in the Lok Sabha and it lapsed. Again the Law Commission in its 156th report [26] urged the need to implement community service in Indian Penal system. [27] Even the Malimath Committee and others [28] recommended community service as mode of punishment. [29]

Community Service Scheme has also been started in one state i.e. Gujarat and it is an alternate for offences under the Bombay Prohibition Act. Another state i.e. Andhra Pradesh (Prison is a state subject) [30] has also amended the Penal Code and introduced Community Service as a punishment. This legislation is now pending with the Union Government for their concurrence. [31]
Cases and pronouncements

We have instances where the court has ordered the offender to do community service in lieu of the offence that he has committed. The Delhi High Court asked two businessmen to perform community service with a voluntary organisation for a year as punishment for firing three shots at their friend for fun. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, while quashing a first information report (FIR) against the two businessmen Monday, asked Delhi Police not to return their gun for a year. [32] For sexually harassing a woman on the bus the magistrate asked the offender to write a 25-page essay

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