[12th October, 1871] Repealed
by Act 3 of 1911 Passed by the Governor General of India in Council. (Received the assent of the Governor General
on the 12th October 1871.) An Act for the Registration of Criminal Tribes and
Eunuchs. Preamble.
Whereas it is expedient to provide for the registration, surveillance and
control of certain criminal tribes and eunuchs; It is hereby enacted as follows:- This Act
may be called ?The Criminal Tribes' Act, 1871,? and it shall come into force on
the passing thereof. Local
extent. This section and section twenty extend to the whole of British India:
the rest of this Act extends only to the territories under the governments of
the Lieutenant-Governors of the North-Western Provinces and the Panjab,
respectively, and under the administration of the Chief Commissioner of Oudh. Part I CRIMINAL TRIBES If the
Local Government has reason to believe that any tribe, gang or class of persons
is addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences, it may
report the case to the Governor General in Council, and may request his
permission to declare such tribe, gang or class to be a criminal tribe. The
report shall state the reasons why such tribe, gang or class is considered to
be addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences, and, as far
as possible, the nature and the circumstances of the offences in which the
members of the tribe are supposed to have been concerned; and shall describe
the manner in which it is proposed that such tribe, gang or class shall earn its
living when the provisions hereinafter contained have been applied to it. If such
tribe, gang or class has no fixed place of residence, the report shall state
whether such tribe, gang or class follows any lawful occupation, and whether
such occupation is, in the opinion of the Local Government, the real occupation
of such tribe, gang or class, or a pretence for the purpose of facilitating the
commission of crimes, and shall set forth the grounds on which such opinion is
based; and the report shall also specify the place of residence in which such
wandering tribe, gang or class is to be settled under the provisions
hereinafter contained, and the arrangements which are proposed to be made for
enabling it to earn its living therein. If,
upon the consideration of any such report, the Governor General in Council is
satisfied that the tribe, gang or class to which it relates ought to be
declared criminal, and that the means by which it is proposed that such tribe,
gang or class shall earn its living are adequate, he may authorize the Local
Government to publish in the Local Gazette a notification declaring that such
tribe, gang or class is a criminal tribe, and thereupon the provisions of this
Act shall become applicable to such tribe, gang or class. No
Court of Justice shall question the validity of any such notification on the
ground that the provisions hereinbefore contained, or any of them, have not
been complied with, or entertain in any form whatever the question whether they
have been complied with; but every such notification shall be conclusive proof
that the provisions of this Act are applicable to the tribe, gang or class
specified therein. When
the notification mentioned in section five has been published, the Local
Government may direct the Magistrate of any district in which such tribe, gang
or class, or any part thereof, is at the time resident, to make a register of
the members of such tribe, gang or class, or of any part thereof. The
declaration of the Local Government that any such tribe, gang or class, or any
part of it, is resident in any district, shall be conclusive proof of such
residence. Upon
receiving such direction, the said Magistrate shall publish a notice in the
place where the register is to be made, calling upon all the members of such
tribe, gang or class, or of such portion thereof as is directed to be
registered, to appear, at a time and place therein specified, before such
persons as he appoints, and to give those persons such information as may be
necessary to enable them to make the register. Any
member of any such tribe, gang or class who, without lawful excuse, the burthen
of proving which shall lie upon him. shall
fail to appear according to such notice, or who shall intentionally omit to
furnish such information. or who
shall furnish, as true, information on the subject which he knows or has reason
to believe to be false. shall
be deemed guilty of an offence under the first parts of section one hundred and
seventy-four, or one hundred and seventy-six, or one hundred and seventy-seven
of the Indian Penal Code, respectively, as the case may be. The
register, when made, shall be kept by the District Superintendent of Police,
who shall, from time to time, report to the said Magistrate any alterations
which ought to be made therein, either by way of addition or erasure. No
alteration shall be made in such register except by or by order of the said
Magistrate, and he shall write his initials against every such alteration. Notice
to persons affected. Notice shall be given of any such intended alteration, and
of the time when, and place where, it is to be made, to every person affected
thereby. Any
person deeming himself aggrieved by any entry made, or proposed to be made, in
such register, either when the register is first made or subsequently, may
complain to the said Magistrate against such entry, and the Magistrate shall
retain such person's name on the register, or enter it therein, or erase it
therefrom, as he may see fit. Every
order for the erasure of any such person's name shall state the grounds on
which such person's name is erased. The
Commissioner shall have power to review any order of entry, retention or
erasure, passed by the said Magistrate on any such complaint, either on appeal
by the person registered or proposed to be registered, or otherwise. Any
tribe, gang or class, which has been declared to be criminal, and which has no
fixed place of residence, may be settled in a place of residence prescribed by
the Local Government. Any
tribe, gang or class which has been declared to be criminal, or any part
thereof, may, by order of the Local Government, be removed to any other place
of residence. No
tribe, gang or class, shall be settled or removed under the provisions of this
Act until such arrangements as the Local Government shall, with the concurrence
of the Governor General in Council, consider suitable, have been made for
enabling such tribe, gang or class, or such part thereof as is to be so settled
or removed, to earn a living in the place in or to which it is to be settled or
removed. When
the removal of any persons has been ordered under this Act, the register of
such persons' names shall be transferred to the District Superintendent of
Police of the district to which such persons are removed, and the Magistrate of
the said district and the Commissioner of the division in which it is situated,
shall thereupon be empowered to exercise respectively the powers provided in
sections eleven and twelve. The
Local Government may, with the sanction of the Governor General in Council,
place any tribe, gang or class, which has been declared to be criminal, or any
part thereof, in a reformatory settlement. The
Local Government may, with the previous consent of the Governor General in
Council, make rules to prescribe- (1)
the form in which the
register shall be made by the said Magistrate; (2)
the mode in which the
said Magistrate shall publish the notice prescribed in section eight, and the
means by which the persons whom it concerns, and the Headmen, Village-Watchmen
and landowners or occupiers of the village, in which such persons reside, shall
be informed of its publication; (3)
the mode in which the
notice prescribed in section eleven shall be given; (4)
the limits within which
persons whose names are on the register shall reside; (5)
conditions as to holding
passes, under which such persons may be permitted to leave the said limits; (6)
conditions to be
inserted in any such pass as to (a)
the places where the
holder of the pass may go or reside; (b)
the officers before
whom, from time to time, he shall be hound to present himself; (c)
and the time during
which he may absent himself; (7)
conditions as to
answering at roll-call or otherwise, in order to satisfy the said Magistrate or
persons authorized by him, that the persons whose names are on the register are
actually present at given times within the said limits; (8)
the inspection of the
residences and villages of any such tribe, gang or class, and the prevention or
removal of contrivances for enabling the residents therein to conceal stolen
property, or to leave their place of residence without leave; (9)
the terms upon which
registered persons may be discharged from the operation of this Act; (10)
the mode in which
criminal tribes shall be-settled and removed; (11)
the control and
supervision of reformatory settlements; (12)
the works on which, and
the hours during which, persons placed in a reformatory settlement shall be
employed, the rates at which they shall be paid, and the disposal, for the
benefit of such persons, of the surplus proceeds of their labour after
defraying the whole or such part of the expenses of then: supervision and
control as to the Local Government shall seem fit; (13)
the discipline to which
persons endeavouring to escape from any such settlement, or otherwise offending
against the rules for the time being in force, shall be submitted; the
periodical visitation of such settlement, and the removal from it of such
persons as it shall seem expedient to remove; (14)
and generally to carry
out the purposes of this Act. Any
person violating any of the rules made under section eighteen shall be punished
with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with
fine, or with whipping, or with all or any two of those punishments; and, on
any second conviction for a breach of any of the said rules, with rigorous
imprisonment which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with whipping to be
inflicted in the manner prescribed by any law in force for the time being in
relation to whipping, or with all or any two of those punishments. Any
person registered under the provisions of this Act, who is found in any part of
British India, beyond the limits so prescribed for his residence, without such
pass as may be required by the said rules, or in a place or at a time not
permitted by the conditions of his pass, or who escapes from a reformatory
settlement, may be arrested without warrant by any police-officer or village-watchman,
and taken before a Magistrate, who, on proof of the facts, shall order him to
be removed to the district in which he ought to have resided, or to the
reformatory settlement from which he has escaped (as the case may be), there to
be dealt with according to the rules under this Act for the time being in
force. The
rules for the time being in force for the transmission of prisoners shall apply
to all persons removed under this section: Provided that an order from the
Local Government or from the Inspector General of Prisons shall not be
necessary, for the removal of such persons. It
shall be the duty of every Village-Headman and Village-Watchman in a village in
which any persons belonging to a tribe, class or gang which has been declared
criminal reside, and of every owner or occupier of land on which any such
persons reside, to give the earliest information in his power at the nearest
police station of (1)
the failure of any such
person to appear and give information, as directed in section eight; (2)
the departure of any
such person from such Tillage or from such land (as the case may be). And it
shall be the duty of every Village-Headman and Village-Watchman in a village,
and of every owner or occupier of land, to give the earliest information in his
power at the nearest police station of the arrival at such village or on such
land (as the case may be) of any persons who may reasonably be suspected of
belonging to any such tribe, class or gang. Any
Village-Headman, Village-Watchman, owner or occupier of land, who shall fail to
comply with the requirements of section twenty-one, shall be deemed to have
committed an offence under the first part of section one hundred and
seventy-six of the Indian Penal Code. All
Magistrates and other persons are hereby indemnified for anything heretofore
done under the circular order 18 of 1856 of the Judicial Commissioner of the
Panjab, or under any orders of the Local Governments of the North-Western
Provinces or Oudh, relating to the registration or detention of tribes regarded
by such Local Governments as criminal tribes; and no suit or other proceeding
shall be maintained against any such Magistrate or other person in respect of
anything so done. Part II EUNUCHS The
Local Government shall cause the following registers to be made and kept up by
such officer as, from time to time, it appoints in this behalf:- (a)
a register of the names
and residences of all eunuchs residing in any town or place to which the Local
Government specially extends this Part of this Act, who are reasonably
suspected of kidnapping or castrating children, or of committing offences under
section three hundred and seventy-seven of the Indian Penal Code, or of
abetting the commission of any of the said offences; and (b)
a register of the
property of such of the said eunuchs as, under the provisions hereinafter
contained, are required to furnish information as to their property. ?Eunuch?
defined. The term ?eunuch? shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to
include all persons of the male sex who admit themselves, or on medical
inspection clearly appear, to be impotent. Any
person deeming himself aggrieved by any entry made or proposed to be made in
such register, either when the register is first made or subsequently, may
complain to the said officer, who shall enter such person's name, or erase it,
or re kin it, as he sees fit. Every
order for erasure of such person's name shall state the grounds on which such
person's name is erased. The
Commissioner shall have power to review any order passed by such officer on
such complaint, either on appeal by the complainant or otherwise. Any
eunuch so registered who appears, dressed or ornamented like a woman, in a
public street or place, or in any other place, with the intention of being seen
from a public street or place. or
dancing in public, or for hire. or who dances or plays music, or takes part in
any public exhibition, in a public street or place or for hire in a private
house, may be arrested without warrant, and shall be punished with imprisonment
of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine,
or with both. Any
eunuch so registered who has in his charge, or keeps in the house in which he
resides, or under his control, any boy who has not completed the age of sixteen
years, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two
years, or with fine, or with both. The
Magistrate may direct that any such boy shall be returned to his parents or
guardians, if they can be discovered. If they cannot be discovered, the
Magistrate may make such arrangements as lie thinks necessary for the
maintenance and education of such boy, and may direct that the whole or any part
of a fine inflicted under section twenty-seven may be employed in defraying the
cost of such arrangements. The
Local Government may direct out of what local or municipal fund so much of the
cost of such arrangements as is not met by the fine imposed, shall be defrayed. No
eunuch so registered shall be capable- (a)
of being or acting as
guardian to any minor, (b)
of making a gift, (c)
of making a will, or (d)
of adopting a son. Any
officer authorized by the Local Government in this behalf may, from time to
time, require any eunuch so registered to furnish information as to all
property, whether movable or immovable, of or to which he is possessed or
entitled, or which is held in trust for him. Penalty
for refusing such information. Any such eunuch intentionally omitting to
furnish such information, or furnishing, as true, information on the subject
which he knows, or has reason to believe, to be false, shall be deemed to have
committed an offence under section one hundred and seventy-six or one hundred
and seventy-seven of the Indian Penal Code, as the case may be. The
Local Government may, with the previous sanction of the Governor General in
Council, make rules for the making and keeping up and charge of registers made
under this Part of the Act. Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 [Repealed]
[Act 27 of 1871]
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