§ MR. O'DONNELLasked the Secretary of State for India, Whether it is true that, according to the new Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill (India), a magistrate may not inflict upon a European British subject imprisonment for a longer period than three months, but that he may inflict upon an Indian British subject imprisonment for three years and solitary confinement?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONSir, the Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill does not make any alteration in the law relating to this point. As this Question appears to point to some proposed alteration, it would be hardly necessary to trouble the House by entering into the subject.
§ MR. O'DONNELLasked, Whether this was not a re-enactment of a previous measure, and whether it was not true that under its provisions no European British subject might be sentenced to more than one year's imprisonment, while an Indian subject might be sentenced by the same Court to imprisonment for 14 years, to transportation for life, and even to the penalty of death?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONsaid, that the Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill did propose to re-enact the existing law with regard to which there was an undoubted disparity.