Punishment under law is fundamentally a technique of social control or the oldest method of controlling crime and criminality. It is inflicted by the state on an individual who is subjected to laws of the state but breaks such laws.
Forms of Punishment:
- Mutilation: It was a kind of corporal punishment where one or both hands of a person who committed theft were chopped off. If he indulged in a sex crime, his private part was cut off. This punishment stands completely discarded in modern times because of its barbaric nature.
- Branding: The convicts were branded as a mark of indelible criminal record, leaving visible marks such as scars on body parts which are normally noticeable. These permanent marks not only served as a caution for society to guard against such hardened criminals but also carried stigma, which deterred them from repeating the offence.
- Stoning: Offenders involved in sex crimes were generally punished by stoning to death. The guilty person was made to stand in a small trench dug in the ground, and people surrounded him from all sides and pelted stones until he died.
- Pillory: The criminal was made to stand in an iron frame so that he could not move his body. The offender could also be whipped or branded while in the pillory. He could be stoned if his offence was of a serious nature. His ears were nailed to the beams of the pillory. Hanging a prisoner to death in a public place was a common mode of pillory punishment.
- Fines: The imposition of fines is a common mode of punishment for offences which are not of a serious nature. Fines by way of penalty may be used in minor offences like theft, gambling, loitering, etc. Other forms of financial penalty include payment of compensation to the victim. Fines as an alternative to imprisonment are used only against short-term imprisonment (i.e., imprisonment up to 2–3 years).
- Forfeiture of Property: Section 4 of BNS, 2023 provides forfeiture of property as a form of punishment. There are two offences specified under Sections 154 and 203 BNS which provide for confiscation of property besides punishment of imprisonment with or without fine.
- Ostracism: This means exclusion of someone from the community or society. It is a form of social boycott of an erring person.
- Exile: It was a measure to keep the convict away from the country, state, or city.
- Solitary Confinement: A deterrent form of punishment in which a prisoner is denied any kind of contact with any person or the outside world. The prisoners are kept in isolation with no contact with anyone else and are usually locked in a small cellular room. The effect of this isolation is so severe that the deprivation often causes mental illness and even death of the prisoner before their final release.
- House Arrest: When a person is confined by authorities to his/her residence under constant surveillance of the police, it is called house arrest.
- Imprisonment: This can be of two types—rigorous or simple. In rigorous imprisonment, the offender is put to hard labour such as grinding corn, digging earth, drawing water from a well, cutting firewood, or bowing wool. In simple imprisonment, the offender is confined to jail and is not put to any kind of work.
- Life Imprisonment: In its ordinary connotation, imprisonment for life means being in jail for the whole life of the convict. As per Section 6 of BNS, life imprisonment is of 20 years. It can be simple or rigorous.
- Capital Punishment: This is the most controversial and debated subject. Under this punishment, a person is hanged till death. It is provided in the rarest of rare cases only, i.e., for serious offences.
