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    Ex-Post Facto Law Article 20 (1) Says That No Person Shall Be Convicted of Any Offence

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    harsh
    Article 20 of the constitution safeguards the rights of persons accused of crimes, including citizens, non-citizens, and corporations. This article cannot be suspended even during emergencies. Article 20 also limits the legislative powers of the Union and State legislatures. Article 20(1) establishes the principle against ex post facto laws by prohibiting conviction or punishment for an act that was not illegal at the time it was committed. Article 20(2) establishes the doctrine against double jeopardy by prohibiting prosecution and punishment for the same offense more than once. Article 20(3) establishes the right against self-incrimination by prohibiting compelling an accused person to be a witness against themselves.

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    Ex-Post Facto Law Article 20 (1) Says That No Person Shall Be Convicted of Any Offence

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    harsh
    35 views2 pages
    Article 20 of the constitution safeguards the rights of persons accused of crimes, including citizens, non-citizens, and corporations. This article cannot be suspended even during emergencies. Article 20 also limits the legislative powers of the Union and State legislatures. Article 20(1) establishes the principle against ex post facto laws by prohibiting conviction or punishment for an act that was not illegal at the time it was committed. Article 20(2) establishes the doctrine against double jeopardy by prohibiting prosecution and punishment for the same offense more than once. Article 20(3) establishes the right against self-incrimination by prohibiting compelling an accused person to be a witness against themselves.

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    Article 20 of the constitution safeguards the rights of persons accused of crimes, including citizens, non-citizens, and corporations. This article cannot be suspended even during emergencies. Article 20 also limits the legislative powers of the Union and State legislatures. Article 20(1) establishes the principle against ex post facto laws by prohibiting conviction or punishment for an act that was not illegal at the time it was committed. Article 20(2) establishes the doctrine against double jeopardy by prohibiting prosecution and punishment for the same offense more than once. Article 20(3) establishes the right against self-incrimination by prohibiting compelling an accused person to be a witness against themselves.

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    35 views2 pages

    Ex-Post Facto Law Article 20 (1) Says That No Person Shall Be Convicted of Any Offence

    Uploaded by

    harsh
    Article 20 of the constitution safeguards the rights of persons accused of crimes, including citizens, non-citizens, and corporations. This article cannot be suspended even during emergencies. Article 20 also limits the legislative powers of the Union and State legislatures. Article 20(1) establishes the principle against ex post facto laws by prohibiting conviction or punishment for an act that was not illegal at the time it was committed. Article 20(2) establishes the doctrine against double jeopardy by prohibiting prosecution and punishment for the same offense more than once. Article 20(3) establishes the right against self-incrimination by prohibiting compelling an accused person to be a witness against themselves.

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    of 2

    Article 20 has taken care to safeguard the rights of persons accused of crimes.

    Persons
    here means the citizens, non-citizens as well as corporations. Please note that this article
    can not be suspended even during an emergency in operation under article 359. Article
    20 also constitutes the limitation on the legislative powers of the Union and State
    legislatures.

    Ex-Post facto Law Article 20 (1) says that no person shall be convicted of any offence
    except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the Act charged as
    an offence, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been
    inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offence. This is
    called Ex-Post facto Law.

    It means that legislature can not make a law which provides for punishment of acts
    which were committed prior to the date when it cam into force. This means that a new
    law can not punish an old act.

    Example- If a person ‘A’ commits an offence in the year 1947, as per the act in that year
    the punishment was imprisonment of fine or both the same act was amended in 1949
    which enhanced the punishment of the same offence by as additional fine. In such a case
    the punishment enhanced would not be applicable to the act of 1947, the same would be
    set-aside.

    Doctrine of Double Jeopardy

    Article 20(2) says that no person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence
    more than once. This is called Doctrine of Double Jeopardy. The objective of this article
    is to avoid harassment, which must be caused for successive criminal proceedings,
    where the person has committed only one crime. There is a law maxim related to this –
    nemo debet bis vexari. This means that no man shall be put twice in peril for the same
    offence. There are two aspects of Doctrine of Jeopardy viz. autrefois convict and
    autrefois acquit. Autrefois convict means that the person has been previously convicted
    in respect of the same offence. The autrefois acquit means that the person has been
    acquitted on a same charge on which he is being prosecuted. Please note that
    Constitution bars double punishment for the same offence. The conviction for such

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    offence does not bar for subsequent trial and conviction for another offence and it does
    not matter the some ingredients of these two offences are common.

    Self Incrimination Law

    Article 20(3) of the constitution says that no person accused of any offence shall be
    compelled to be a witness against himself. This is based upon a legal maxim which
    means that No man is bound to accuse himself. The accused is presumed to be innocent
    till his guilt is proved. It is the duty of the prosecution to establish his guilt.

    Relevant Provision of the Evidence Act-

    25. Confession to police officer not to be proved

    No confession made to a police officer shall be proved as against a person accused of any
    offence.

    26. Confession by accused while in custody of police not to be proved


    against him

    No confession made by any person whilst he is in the custody of a police officer, unless it
    be made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate, 17 shall be proved as against such
    person.

    27. How much of information received from accused may be proved

    Provided that when any fact is deposed to as discovered in consequences of information


    received from a person accused of any offence, in the custody of a police officer, so much
    of such information, whether if amounts to a confessions or not, as relates distinctly to
    the fact thereby discovered, may be proved.

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