Imprisonment, 'imprisonment' shall mean imprisonment of either description as defined in the
Indian Penal Code. [General Clauses Act, 1897 (10 of 1897), s. 3(27)]
The restraint of a person's liberty under the custody of another. It extends in law to confinement not only in a gaol, but in a house, or stocks, or to hold-ing a man in the street, etc.; for in all these cases the person so restrained is said to be a prisoner, so long as he has not his liberty freely to go about his business as at other times, Co. Litt. 253. See FALSE IMPRISONMENT.
Imprisonment for Crime.--Any common law mis-demeanour is punishable after conviction on indictment by fine or imprisonment or both, at the discretion of the court. Imprisonment for not more than two years is very frequently authorised, as an alternative to penal servitude, by the (English) Offences against the Person Act, 1861, and other Acts set out in Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Criminal Law.' As to the right of any person convicted by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction to appeal; provided that he did not plead guilty or admit the truth of the information, see ss. 19 and 31 of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, as amended by (English) Summary Jurisdiction (Appeals) Act, 1933 (23 & 24 Geo. 5, c. 38); this Act now regulates the procedure on appeal to Quarter Sessions; Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Justices.' Important alterations in the law relating to imprisonment have been introduced by the (English) Criminal Justice Administration Act, 1914; see especially s. 3 and ss. 16-18; and see the (English) Money Payments (Justices Procedure) Act, 1935 (25 & 26 Geo. 5, c. 46), as to imprison-ment, detention in a police Court, or supervision in case where money is adjudged to be paid by a court of summary jurisdiction by a conviction.
Imprisonment of Children.--By the (English) Children and Young Persons Act, 1933 (23 Geo. 5, c. 22), s. 52, replacing with amendments s. 102 of the (English) Children Act, 1908, a child under 14 cannot be sentenced to imprisonment or penal servitude for any offence, or committed to prison in default of payment of a fine, damages, or costs, and a young person (i.e., one who is 14 but under 17) cannot be sentenced to penal servitude for any offence, and cannot be imprisoned unless the Court certifies that the young person is of so unruly a character that he cannot be detained in a place of detention provided by the Act of that he is of so depraved a character that he is not a fit person to be so detained. The Prevention of Crime Act, 1908, s. 1, also provides for a person, who is not less than 16 nor more than 21, being sent to a Borstal Institution.
By the (English) Money Payments (Justices Procedure) Act, 1935, a person under 21 is not to be imprisoned for non-payment of a sum payable upon conviction for which he has been allowed time unless he has been placed under supervision (s. 6).
Imprisonment for Debt.--As to this, before 1870, see MESNE PROCESS. The (English) Debtors Act, 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 62) (see Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Debt'), by s. 4, abolished imprisonment for debt with six exceptions; but, subject to Rules of Court, by s. 5, allows commitment to prison of a judgment debtor for not more than six weeks; this jurisdiction is now exercised only by the Bankruptcy Court and the County Courts [see (English) County Courts Act, 1934 (24 & 25 Geo. 5, c. 53), ss. 96, 143(5)]. S. 4 of the (English) Debtors Act, 1869, enacts that:-
With the exceptions hereinafter mentioned, no person shall, after the commencement of this Act, be arrested or imprisoned for making default in payment of a sum of money.
There shall be excepted from the operation of the above enactment:
(1) Default in payment of a penalty, or sum in the nature of a penalty, other than a penalty in respect of any contract:
(2) Default in payment of any sum recoverable summarily before a justice or justices of the peace, see R. v. Pratt, (1870) LR 5 QB 176.
(3) Default by a trustee or person acting in a fiduci-ary capacity and ordered to pay by a Court of Equity any sum in his possession or under his control, see Marris v. Ingram, (1879) 13 Ch D 338; Re Smith, (1893) 2 Ch 1.
(4) Default by an attorney or solicitor in payment of costs when ordered to pay costs for misconduct as such, or in payment of a sum of money when ordered to pay the same in his character of an officer of the Court making the order; [see Re Strong, (1886) 32 Ch D 342].
(5) Default in payment for the benefit of creditors of any portion of a salary or other income in respect of the payment of which any Court having jurisdic-tion in bankruptcy is authorised to make an order:
(6) Default in payment of sums in respect of the pay-ment of which orders are in this Act authorized to be made.
As to imprisonment for non-payment of payments in bastardy or under affiliation orders, or of rates under the (English) Bastardy Laws (Amendment) Act, 1872, or the (English) Distress for Rates Act, 1849, respectively, the (English) Money Payments (Justices Procedure) Act, 1935 (25 & 26 Geo. 5, c. 46), provides that the warrant of commitment is not to issue if the justices are of opinion that failure to pay was not due to willful refusal or culpable neglect with power to remit all or any of the debt under consideration.
Imprisonment for life is a class of punishment different from ordinary imprisonment which could be of two descriptions, namely, 'rigorous' or 'simple', Mohd. Munna v. Union of India, (2005) 7 SCC 417.
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