Attempts to commit offences | A, a pickpocket suspecting that B carried a purse in his pocket puts his hand in it but the pocket was empty. Please record your opinion if A is guilty of attempt to commit theft.

Question: A, a pickpocket suspecting that B carried a purse in his pocket puts his hand in it but the pocket was empty. Please record your opinion if A is guilty of an attempt to commit theft.

Find the answer to the mains question only on Legal Bites [A, a pickpocket suspecting that B carried a purse in his pocket puts his hand in it but the pocket was empty. Please record your opinion if A is guilty of an attempt to commit theft.]

Answer

Section 511, which is the solitary provision included in the last chapter ‘Of Attempts to Commit Offences’ of the Penal Code, makes an attempt to commit an offence punishable. It lays down general principles relating to attempts in India. It reads as:

Whoever attempts to commit an offence punishable by this Code with imprisonment for life or imprisonment, or to cause such an offence to be committed, and in such attempt does any act towards the commission of the offence, shall, where no express provision is made by this Code for the punishment of such attempt, be punished with imprisonment of any description provided for the offence, for a term which may extend to one-half of the imprisonment for life or, as the case may be, one-half of the longest term of imprisonment provided for that offence, or with such fine as is provided for the offence, or with both.

The present facts of the case at hand are borrowed from illustration b) to this section. In this case, when A makes an attempt to pick the pocket of Z by thrusting his hand into Z’s pocket but fails in the attempt in consequence of Z’s having nothing in his pocket. A shall be held guilty under this section.

This is because a plain reading of section 511 reveals that it is applicable where no specific provisions in the IPC are made for punishing attempts to commit an offence. It comes into operation when a person, accused of attempting an offence, after having intended to commit an offence and having made preparations, has done an act (or a series of acts) towards the commission of the intended offence. But he, due to interruptions, could not commit it. It is not applicable to any attempt to commit a non-IPC offence.

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