§ Sir HENRY COTTONasked the Under-Secretary for India whether, during the past year, there has been any increase of flogging for prison offences in India; and, if so, whether he can state to what cause the increase is due?
The MASTER of ELIBANKThe Secretary of State has not yet received all the Reports on the Administration of Gaols in India for 1908, and is therefore unable to say whether there has been on the whole any increase of flogging for prison offences. As the hon. Member is no doubt aware, flogging is very sparingly used as a gaol punishment in India, and is reserved (as it is in this country) for the most serious offences.
§ Sir HENRY COTTONasked the Under-Secretary for India whether his attention has been drawn to the case of a student at Navokhali, in the Bombay Presidency, who received a flogging of 30 stripes, in spite of a certificate from the civil surgeon that he was unfit to bear that punishment; and whether inquiry will be made into the facts with a view of mitigating the severity and restricting the practice of corporal punishment under the Indian Whipping Act?
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The MASTER of ELIBANKThe Secretary of State has no information on the subject; he will inquire as to the facts. The recent Amendment of the Whipping Act reduced the maximum number of stripes in the case of a person under 16 years of age to 15.