Constituent Assembly of India (Legislative) Debates Proceedings other then Questions and Answers Tuesday 5th April 1949 Official Report

If the honourable Minister think4' that the courts are not administering the presenlaw as they should that merely shows that public opinion is not strong enough to compel the court or induce the court to inflict the punishment of imprisoment. [...] True that everybody is supposed to know the law but if the offence is committed you do not want to punish him for punishment's sake but to see that he does not commit the offence in future.- If that is the intention of the Government certainly they should take steps to Make the provisions of the law known. [...] - At the present moment. everywh-e in the civilized world there is an endeavour to make the law adjustable to the individual by what is called 'individualization' and that can"ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES (TEMPORARY POWERS) AMENDMENT BILL 2347 only be done in our present system by leaving discretion in the hands of the.COlut concerned to modulate the punishment. [...] I have ' tabled an amendment to the proviso to clause 3 that the burden of proving that the owner of the vehicle had no knowledge that the offence would be committed should be thrown on the owner himself because in such offences it is only the driver or the servant getting a small pay that is caught hold of and made the scape goat and the owner always escapes. [...] Rao: The agent should be presumed to have had knowledge that the lorry is going to be used for the commission of the offence when the substantive offence is proved.