§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLasked the Under-Secretary for India whether having regard to the fact that the Indian code of criminal procedure is now under revision, special attention, with a view to drastic amendment or abolition, will be given to the provisions of that code in which in appeals by the Government against acquittals for murder, which are only observed in the case; of Natives tried for their lives and acquitted, so that the Appellate Court shall be precluded by Statute from imposing a death penalty, there being in India no statutory obligation to pass sentence of death, and in the interval between 1902 and 1908 there being no fewer than twenty-six Indians who, having been tried on charges of murder and acquitted, were subsequently, on appeal preferred by the Government, convicted, sentenced to death, and actually executed; and whether, having regard to the fact that the widest power of revision in criminal cases tried by Subordinate Courts under the Indian code of criminal procedure is vested in High Courts, special attention, with a view to its abolition, will be given to the power to enhance a 172W sentence from which an appeal has been taken to a death penalty, which has been recently exercised in Madras?
Mr. ROBERTSSpecial attention is being, given to the provisions of the Indian criminal procedure code to which the hon. Member refers with a view to an impartial consideration of objections taken to the existing law and of the various proposals for amending it that have been made.