Explain the law under the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 relating to the sentence in case of conviction of several offences at a trial.

Question: Explain the law under the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 relating to the sentence in case of conviction of several offences at a trial. [U.P.C.J. 2006]

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Answer

Section 31, deals with the sentencing of an individual who has been convicted of multiple offences during a single trial. The essential aspects of Section 31 are as follows:-

If a person is found guilty of two or more offences in a single trial, the Court has the authority to impose separate punishments for each offence. These punishments can include imprisonment and other penalties as prescribed by law. If imprisonment is part of the punishment, the Court can determine the order in which the sentences are served. However, the Court can also decide that certain punishments will run concurrently (at the same time).

If the sentences for the different offences are to be served consecutively (one after the other), the Court is not required to refer the case to a higher Court for sentencing even if the total punishment for all the offences exceeds what the Court could normally impose for a single offence. However, there are limitations:

• The total imprisonment period should not exceed fourteen years.
  
• The combined punishment for all offences should not exceed twice the maximum punishment that the Court could give for a single offence.

In terms of the right to appeal, if the convicted person wants to appeal their sentence, the total of all consecutive sentences given under this section is treated as if it were a single sentence for the purpose of calculating the grounds for appeal and any potential modifications to the sentence.

Section 71 of IPC talks about the Limit of punishment of offences made up of several offences. It states that where anything which is an offence is made up of parts, any of which parts is itself an offence, the offender shall not be punished with the punishment of more than one of such his of­fences unless it is so expressly provided.

Where anything is an offence falling within two or more sepa­rate definitions of any law in force for the time being by which offences are defined or punished, or where several acts, of which one or more than one would by itself or themselves constitute an offence, constitute, when combined, a different offence, the offender shall not be punished with a more severe punishment than the Court which tries him could award for any one of such offences.

Illustrations-

(a) A gives Z fifty strokes with a stick. Here A may have commit­ted the offence of voluntarily causing hurt to Z by the whole beating, and also by each of the blows which make up the whole beating. If A were liable to punishment for every blow, he might be imprisoned for fifty years, one for each blow. But he is liable only to one punishment for the whole beating.

(b) But if, while A is beating Z, Y interferes, and A intention­ally strikes Y, here, as the blow given to Y is no part of the act whereby A voluntarily causes hurt to Z, A is liable to one punishment for voluntarily causing hurt to Z, and to another for the blow given to Y.

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