Habitually - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition habitually

Definition :

Habitually, a person is said to be a habitual criminal who by force of habit or inward disposition is accustomed to commit crimes. It implies commission of such crimes repeatedly or persistently and prima facie there should be a continuity in the commission of those offences, Ayub Pappu Nawabkhan Pathan v. S.N. Sinha, AIR 1990 SC 2069 (2071): (1990) 4 SCC 552. [Gujarat Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act, 1985, s. 2(c)]

The word 'habitually'connotes some degree of fre-quency and continuity. It requires a continuance and permanence of some tendency, something that has developed into a propensity, that is, present from day-to-day, Stroud's Judicial Dictionary, Fourth Edn., Vol. 2, p. 1204, Vijay Narain Singh v. State of Bihar, AIR 1984 SC 1334 (1338): (1984) 3 SCC 14: (1984) 3 SCR 435.

Means 'usually' and 'generally', Mustakmiya Jabbar-miya Shaikh v. M.M. Mehta, Commissioner of Police, (1995) 3 SCC 237.

Would mean repeatedly or persistently and implies a thread of continuity stringing together similar repeated acts. Repeated, persistent and similar, but not isolated, individual and dissimilar acts are necessary to justify an inference of habit, Vijay Narain Singh v. State of Bihar, 1984 3 SCC 14: AIR 1984 SC 1334; Vijay Amba Diware v. Balkrishna Waman Dande, (2000) 4 SCC 126. [Also see The Law Lexicon (2nd Edn.), P. Ramanatha Aiyar]

Connotes same act of continuity, Sharma Prashant Raje v. Ganpatrao, (2000) 7 SCC 522.

The expression 'habitually' would obviously mean repeatedly or persistently, Amanulla Khan etc v. State of Gujarat, AIR 1999 SC 2197 (2199). [Gujarat Prevention of Anti Social Activities Act (16 of 1985), s. 2(c)]

The word 'habitually' does not defer to the fre-quency of the occasions but to the invariably of a Practice and habit has to be proved by totality of facts. It, therefore, follows that the complicity of a person in an isolated offence is neither evidence nor a material of any help to conclude that a particular person is a 'dangerous person' unless there is material suggesting his complicity in such cases, which lead to a reasonable conclusion that the person is a habitual criminal. The word 'habit-ually' means 'usually' and 'generally'. Almost similar meaning is assigned to the word 'habit' in Aiyar's Judicial Dictionary. It does not refer to the frequency of the occasions but to the invariability of practice and the habit has to be proved by totality of facts, R. Kalavathi v. State of Tamil Nadu, (2006) 6 SCC 14, see also Aiyar's Judicial Dictionary, 10th Edn., p. 485; Mustakmiya Jabbarmiya Shaikh v. M.M. Mehta, (1995) 3 SCC 552.