KSLU Solved Question Papers
Criminal Law I
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 4
2019 Dec Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 4 Criminal Law I 2019 Dec Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2019 Dec examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2019 Dec examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2019 Dec examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 80 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all five Units. (2) One essay type question and short note/problem is compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answers shall be written either in English or Kannada completely.
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Explain the territorial jurisdiction of Indian Penal Code with exceptions.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the rule of territorial jurisdiction in section 2 of the Indian Penal Code (now section 1(3) of the Sanhita): every person, every offence, within India; the reach of "within India", including a foreign aircraft standing at an Indian airport (Mayer Hans George); the exceptions: (1) persons exempt by the Constitution, the President and the Governors (Article 361); (2) persons exempt by international law, foreign sovereigns and diplomatic agents, the list approved in Mobarik Ali Ahmed, and diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention as Indian law applies it; (3) laws the Code leaves untouched (section 5); the opposite exception, offences outside India the Code still reaches (sections 3 and 4) and its limit (Central Bank of India v. Ram Narain); the Sanhita; a conclusion.
The rule
Section 2 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 says: "Every person shall be liable to punishment under this Code and not otherwise for every act or omission contrary to the provisions thereof, of which he shall be guilty within India."
The rule is wide on two counts. It covers "every person", whatever his nationality. And it covers every offence committed "within India", which means the land, the territorial waters up to twelve nautical miles, and the airspace above them.
How far "within India" reaches
Facts. In State of Maharashtra v. Mayer Hans George, AIR 1965 SC 722, decided on 24 August 1964, a German passenger flew from Zurich to Manila. His aircraft touched Santa Cruz airport in Bombay at dawn, and he never left it. He wore a jacket with twenty-eight compartments holding about thirty-four kilos of gold, which he had not declared as the Reserve Bank's notification required.
Held. The Supreme Court, by a majority, restored his conviction under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947. The law deemed gold kept in a ship or aircraft within India to be "brought" into India, even if it was never taken out. His ignorance of the new notification was no defence.
Why it bears. A foreigner who never stepped off an aircraft was still within India while it stood at an Indian airport. Territorial jurisdiction attaches to the place, not to whether the person meant to enter the country.
Exception 1: persons protected by the Constitution
Article 361(2) of the Constitution protects the President and the Governor of a State. No criminal proceedings may be instituted or continued against either of them in any court during the term of office. This is not a licence to commit crime. It suspends prosecution while the person holds the office, to protect the office itself.
Exception 2: persons protected by international law
Facts. In Mobarik Ali Ahmed v. The State of Bombay, AIR 1957 SC 857, decided on 6 September 1957, a Pakistani national had worked a fraud from Karachi on a man in Bombay. He argued that, never having entered India, he could not be tried here.
Held. His conviction was upheld, because "every person" in section 2 covers all persons irrespective of nationality. The Court then listed those who are exempt. They are persons exempt by the Constitution, or by a statute, or by a well-recognised principle of international law accepted in Indian law, such as "foreign sovereigns, ambassadors and diplomatic agents".
Diplomatic agents. The Diplomatic Relations (Vienna Convention) Act, 1972 gives parts of the Vienna Convention the force of law in India. Article 31 of the Convention gives a diplomatic agent immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the receiving State. Under Article 32, only the sending State may waive that immunity. So a diplomat who commits an offence in Delhi cannot be tried in India unless his country waives the immunity.
Foreign sovereigns. A foreign head of State is immune from the criminal courts of India by the same principle of international law.
Exception 3: laws the Code leaves alone
Section 5 saves two kinds of law from the Code. One is any Act for punishing mutiny and desertion in the armed forces of the Government of India. The other is "any special or local law". So a soldier's desertion is dealt with under the Army Act, not the Code. Special laws such as those on narcotics continue to operate alongside the Code.
The opposite exception: offences outside India
Territoriality has exceptions in the other direction too. The Code reaches some offences committed beyond India.
- Section 3. A person liable by Indian law to be tried for an offence beyond India is dealt with as if the act were done in India.
- Section 4. The Code applies to any offence by a citizen of India anywhere, and by any person on a ship or aircraft registered in India. It also covers any person abroad who targets a computer resource in India.
Facts. In Central Bank of India v. Ram Narain, AIR 1955 SC 36, decided on 12 October 1954, a trader at Mailsi, in Multan District, sent pledged cotton bales to Karachi in November 1947. He then settled in India and was prosecuted here.
Held. The charges were rightly quashed. Section 4 applies only if the accused was a citizen of India when the offence was committed. A later change of citizenship cannot give jurisdiction backwards.
Why it bears. The extra-territorial reach is itself limited. It follows the offender's status at the time of the act.
Under the Sanhita
Section 1(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 repeats section 2. Section 1(4) and (5) carry sections 3 and 4. Section 1(6) is the old section 5, saving the laws on mutiny and desertion and special or local laws. Article 361 and the diplomatic immunities are untouched.
Conclusion. Under section 2 of the Code, now section 1(3) of the Sanhita, every person is liable for every offence committed within India. That includes a foreigner on an aircraft standing at an Indian airport, as Mayer Hans George shows. The exceptions are few. The President and the Governors cannot be prosecuted while in office. Foreign sovereigns and diplomatic agents are immune under international law, as Mobarik Ali Ahmed recognised, unless their State waives the immunity. Special and local laws are saved. In the other direction, sections 3 and 4 reach offences abroad by citizens, limited to citizenship at the time, as Central Bank of India v. Ram Narain holds.
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