§ MR. PICKERSGILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the resolution passed by the Indian Social Conference at Amraoti, in December last, in favour of the abolition of the imprisonment of women in enforcement of decrees for the restitution of conjugal rights; whether he is aware that a distinct promise was given by a former Viceroy that 41 this provision of the Code should be expunged when the Statute again came up for revision; and will he explain why the opportunity presented recently, when the Penal Code Amendment Act, 1898, was passing through the Viceroy's Council, was not availed of in order to fulfil the said promise?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIAI have not seen the resolution, but I am aware that the Government of India in 1890 expressed their intention, when opportunity offered, to introduce a clause which would enable the Civil Courts to refuse to send women to prison in such cases. Such an opportunity occurred in 1894, when a Bill was brought in to amend the Code of Civil Procedure. The original Bill contained a provision to the effect which I have stated; but, as explained in an answer given in this House by my predecessor, on the 9th April, 1895—
The clause was unanimously struck out by a Select Committee of seven members, four of whom were natives of India, on the ground that the country was not yet ripe for such a change, and a motion to restore it was lost in the Legislative Council by 15 votes to two.The question is one of civil procedure, and has nothing to do with the Penal Code or the Criminal Courts.