§ MR. O'DONNELLasked the Secretary of State for India, Whether his attention has been drawn to the proposal to incorporate in the Indian Criminal Code, as permanent Clauses, the provisions of certain Acts of the years 1817 1859 and 1818, by which the Governor General of India, or Lieutenant Governor of a Presidency may imprison at pleasure, without trial, for any period, any person suspected of being concerned in any commotion or agitation in British India, or any protected Native State; and also to attach for any period at pleasure any property belonging to such person, without any appeal to any court ordinarily having jurisdiction in cases of property; whether the only exceptions in the whole of India to the permanent operation of the proposed coercions are delared to be the European subjects of Her Majesty in India; whether the passing of such a measure of coercion exclusively against the Natives of India has received the sanction of the Home Government; and, if so, whether he will state the grounds for reviving in the present year Coercion Acts of extreme severity, dating from the years 1817 and 1818, at a time of general war in India?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONSir, at the suggestion of the India Office, the Government of India has been engaged for some time in preparing a Bill for the purpose of consolidating and amending the Indian Criminal Code. The Bill has recently been received at the India Office, and my attention has been called to the point referred to by the hon. Member—that provisions of certain Acts passed in 1817 and 1818 had been incorporated in the Bill. As those Acts did not form part of the Criminal Law, it appeared open to doubt whether they ought to have been included in the Bill for the consolidation of the Criminal Law. The attention of the Government of India will be directed to the point.