Continuing Offence - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition continuing-offence

Definition :

Continuing offence, means type of crime which is committed over a span of time, Gokal Patel Volkart Ltd. v. Dundoyya Guru Shiddaiah Hiremath, (1991) 2 SCC 141 (145). [Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, s. 472 and 468(2)(a)]

A continuing offence is one which is susceptible of continuance and is distinguishable from the one which is committed once and for all. It is one of those offences which arises out of a failure to obey or comply with a rule or its requirement and which involves a penalty, the liability for which continues until the rule or its requirement is obeyed or complied with. On every occasion that such disobedience or non-compliance occurs and reoccurs, there is the offence committed. The distinction between the two kinds of offences is between an act or omission which constitutes an offence once and for all and an act or omission which continues, and therefore, constitutes a fresh offence every time or occasion on which it continues, State of Bihar v. Deokaran Nenshi, (1972) 2 SCC 890: AIR 1973 SC 908 (909): (1973) 1 SCR 1004. (Mines Act, 1952, s. 66)