CHAPTER VII [Section 24 to
24. Classification of prisoners. – (1) The prisoners detained in correctional homes shall be classified as follows :-
(a) civil prisoners,
(b) criminal prisoners,
(c) under-trial prisoners,
(d) convicted prisoners,
(e) habitual offenders,
(f) non-habitual offenders,
(g) political prisoners,
(h) detenus,
(i) lunatics-criminal and non-criminal.
(2) The prisoners referred to in clauses (a) to (h) shall further be classified into male prisoners and female prisoners according to their sex and into Division I prisoners and Division II prisoners in terms of the provisions of section 25.
(3) (i) Any person committed to a correctional home by a civil court under the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, or any other law for the time being in force, shall be classified as a civil prisoner.
(ii) Any person committed to a correctional home by any court or authority for any offence punishable under the Indian Penal Code or any other law for the time being in force or by an order of a court-martial under a writ or order, duly sealed and signed by such court or authority, shall be classified as a criminal prisoner.
(iii) Any person committed to a correctional home having been accused of any offence shall, until he is convicted for that offence or any other offence by any court, be classified as under-trial prisoner.
(iv) Any other person committed to a correctional home in respect of whom any order of conviction has been made by any competent court and a person committed to the custody of a correctional home in default of payment of fine or furnishing security under any proceeding under sections 107 to 110 of the Indian Penal Code shall be classified as a convicted prisoner.
(v) Any prisoner coming within the meaning of clause (f) of section 2 shall be described as a habitual offender. All other prisoners shall be described as non-habitual offenders.
[(vi) Any person arrested or convicted on a charge of having committed or attempting to commit or aiding or abetting the commission of any offence, coming within the purview of any offence punishable under the Indian Penal Code or any other law for the time being in force, in furtherance of any political or democratic movement or public agitation, shall be classified as political prisoner.
Provided that any member or supporter or any person having any involvement with any organisation which is either prescribed or is an organisation or similar organisation under any law for the time being in force, shall not be classified as political prisoner.
Explanation. – For the purposes of this clause, the expression “any offence committed or alleged to have been committed in furtherance of any political or democratic movement or political agitation” means a movement or public agitation sponsored or carried out by any political party or any group or association of persons for furtherance of any political objective securing humans rights or undertaking activities for social reform but does not include any political or democratic movement or public agitation by any group based on any communal, regional, linguistic or caste considerations against any other similar group.]
Explanation. – (1) An offence coming with the purview of Chapter VI of the Indian Penal Code shall always be deemed to be a political offence.
(2) The provision of a law under which an offender is charged shall not be material. A person charged under section 302 or section 379 or section 395 or section 411 of the Indian Penal Code may be classified as a political prisoner if his case satisfies the requirement of this clause;
(b) any movement or public agitation sponsored or carried on by any political party or any group or association of persons for furtherance of any political ideology or for securing or safeguarding any political right, objective or relief with a view to obtaining common good for the people in general or any section thereof or for the remedy of any injustice of political nature done to any individual shall be interpreted as a political movement;
(c) any movement or public agitation sponsored or carried on by any political party or any group or association of persons for securing common good for the people in general or any section thereof or for securing and safeguarding any well-recognised human right, or for undertaking activities in the field of social reform or for ameliorating the living condition of the afflicted or poorer section of the community or for securing reforms or for safeguarding public interest in social, economic, educational and cultural matters, or for securing remedy of any injustice done to any individual or body of individuals in those matters, shall be interpreted as a democratic movement;
(d) for the removal of doubts it is hereby declared that trade union activities and collective activities sponsored or carried on for securing justice and well being of the working class and collective activities for safeguarding the interest of tillers of land or for betterment of conditions of their labour and living shall be deemed to be a democratic movement:
Provided that a movement or public agitation by any communal, regional, linguistic, religious, racial, sectional or caste group sponsored or cared on against any other like group shall not be deemed to be a political or democratic movement:
Provided further that any movement based on religious, regional, communal, racial or caste consideration or any movement for promoting any interest, other than social or economic interest, by any religious, regional, communal or racial or caste people or any movement for placing impediment or obstruction in the matter of advancement of any section or sections of the people, shall not be treated as a political or democratic movement.
(vii) Any person who has been committed to a correctional home by warrant, writ or order issued under any law providing for preventive detention or any person detained without any opportunity of trial under any law for the time being in force, shall be classified as a detenue.
(viii) Any person who has been committed to the custody of a correctional home by a warrant, writ or order made by a court for an alleged offence under any law for the time being in force or for serving sentence for an offence punishable under any law for the time being in force shall be classified as a criminal lunatic if he-
(a) is found to be of unsound mind on the date of his admission into a correctional home; or
(b) is found to have developed unsoundness of mind after his admission into a correctional home but before his conviction;
(c) is found to have developed unsoundness of mind after his admission into a correctional home and after his conviction:
Provided that a person classified as a criminal lunatic under this clause shall cease to be so classified as soon as he is declared by a psychiatrist to have been cured of unsoundness of mind and shall, thereafter, be classified as a criminal prisoner.
(ix) Any prisoner confined in a correctional home on grounds of unsoundness of mind, who is not charged with any offence and against whom no criminal case is pending in any court, shall be classified as non-criminal lunatic.
25. Division I and Division II prisoners. – (1) A prisoner, whether convicted or under-trial, who by his social status, education and habits of life is found to have been accustomed to a superior mode of living, shall be classified as a Division I prisoner unless-
(a) he is found to be a habitual offender; or
(b) he is convicted of-
(i) an offence involving grave cruelty or grave moral turpitude, or
(ii) an offence involving illegal hoarding, storage, movement or disposal of any essential commodity, or
(iii) an economic offence of grave social consequences, or
(iv) an offence of cheating, forgery, outraging modesty of any female, rape or sodomy.
(2) All political prisoners and political detenus referred to in sub-section (2) of section 27 shall be entitled to all the privileges and amenities of Division I prisoners and also to such other privileges and amenities as may be prescribed in addition to the amenities referred to in sub-section (4) of section 35 and section 105.
(3) All prisoners, other than political prisoners or political detenue or those classified as Division I prisoners, shall be classified as Division II prisoners.
26. Power to classify prisoners. – (1) The power to classify a prisoner or a detenue as a Division I prisoner or political prisoner or a detenue as a political detenue initially shall lie with the court to which such prisoner is produced or the authority which remands of detenue to a correctional home. Such prisoner or detenue shall also be entitled to apply for such classification. If such court or authority refuses to make the classification, a petition shall lie in case of a prisoner other than detenue before the Sessions Judge to whom the court of the first instance is subordinate. In the case of a detenue, such petition shall lie before the Sessions Judge of the district of his residence.
(2) Pending classification of a prisoner by a competent court or authority, the Inspector General of Correctional Services may, after considering the relevant criteria, classify a prisoner temporarily as Division I prisoner or a political prisoner or a political detenue.
27. Classification of detenus. – (1) The detenus shall be classified as political detenus and general detenus.
(2) A detenue shall be classified as a political detenue if-
(a) the charges or any of the charges mentioned in the warrant or order of his arrest or in the memorandum of charges accompanying such warrant or order, indicate activities of a political nature, or
(b) his arrest or order of detention has any connection with any political or democratic movement or any of the charges reveals his association with any such movement, or
(c) he is a person usually associated with political activities and there is reason to believe that he has been arrested principally on political consideration.
(3) All detenus, other than those classified as political detenus under subsection (2), shall be classified as general detenus.
(4) (i) All unsocial elements, professional goondas and economic offenders remanded to correctional homes by way of preventive detention under any law for the time being in force, shall be classified as general detenus.
(ii) Any person in respect of whom an order of preventive detention has been made for his involvement in an act which incites or tends to bitterment of feeling between different communities or in any act or movement which may lead to the secession of any part of the territory of India, shall also be classified as a general detenue.