Fines as a Punishment in Indian Penal Code, 1860

Abstract

The paper discusses the role of punishment in a criminal justice system by elaborating its functions. It focusses mainly on monetary sanctions (fine) as a type of punishment under the criminal law and analyzes its efficiency on the basis of the punishment theories. With specific reference to the Indian Penal Code, 1860 the paper categorizes the placement of monetary sanctions in the statute into three variants: where the amount of sanction is mentioned in the provision, where the amount of fine is not mentioned in the provision and where monetary sanctions stand as an alternative to imprisonment in the provision. The paper critiques the third variant as a commodification of offence and provides suggestions to update the statute to enable the efficiency of monetary sanctions as a type of punishment in criminal law.