Whoever - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition whoever

Definition :

Whoever, includes association of persons, such as firm, and does not connote natural person alone, M/s Rai Bahadur Seth Shreeram Durgaprasad v. Director of Enforcement, AIR 1987 SC 1364.

The word 'whoever' in sub-s. (1) of s. 23 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 before its amendment was comprehensive enough to include an association of persons, such as a firm, and did not connote a natural person alone, Rai Bahadur Seth Shreeram Durgaprasad v. Director of Enforcement, AIR 1987 SC 1364 (1367): (1987) 3 SCC 27: (1987) 3 SCR 137. [Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947, s. 23(1), 239c), 12(c) (as stood prior to the Amendment Act, 39 of 1957]

The word 'whoever' occurring at the opening part of s. 202 of the Penal Code refers to a person other than the offender and has no application to the person who is alleged to have committed the principal offence. This is so because there is no law which casts a duty on a criminal to give information which would incriminate himself. That apart the aforementioned ingredients of the offence under s. 202 of the Penal Code do not appear to have been made out against the prosecution, Harish Chandra Sajjan Singh Rathod, AIR 1979 SC 1232 (1233): (1979) 4 SCC 502. [Indian Penal Code, s. 202]