Criminal Law (UGC/NET)

All are the essentials for an offence of cheating under Indian Penal Code.

It can be said that property into or for which the stolen property has been converted or exchanged is not stolen property.
When the property remains the same in substance, then it doesn’t cease to be stolen property.

A, with an intention to cause damage to the stock of B, lights the matchstick. If a lighted matchstick causes loss to B, then A will be liable for mischief. To fulfil the essentials of mischief, an act of accused must cause loss to the prosecution. As in the above case, before setting the fire to the stock of B, A was caught by B and no loss was caused to B, so no offence of mischief is committed.

The false making or altering of any document such as cheque or any tape or disc on which information is stored with the intention that anyone shall accept it as genuine. Forgery is an offence relating to documents defined under section 463 of Indian Penal Code.

Section 424 of Indian Penal Code provides for fraudulent concealment or removal of property from a place where it is deposited. Where one of the several partners removes the partnership books at night and when questioned, denies having done so, he is liable to be punished under section 424 of IPC.

When a person cheats by pretending to be some other person, whether real or imaginary, commits an offence of cheating by personation. ‘A’ pretends to be ‘B’. A commits an offence of cheating by personation as defined under section 416 and punishable under section 419 of Indian Penal Code.

Misconduct by a person in a public place causes annoyance to the person and can be held liable under section 510 of Indian Penal Code.

Opinion expressed in good faith by A respecting the merits of the book submitted by the author to public judgement. A is within one of the exceptions of section 499 as he expressed his opinion respecting B’s character in good faith and as it appears in the book of B. It is not a defamation under section 499 and falls under the exceptions to defamation under section 499 of Indian Penal Code.

As provided under Explanation I of section 499, defamation may be of a deceased person with the intention to hurt the feelings of his family or near relatives. Explanation II of section 499 states that defamation may be concerning a company, an association or a collection of persons.
Defamation is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual person, whether living or dead or real or imaginary, business, government, religion or nation.

A person, who by deceiving another person and with mala fide intention, induces another person to believe that he is in office, when he was not expected to be in office, and obtained gratification, is said to have committed cheating under section 417 of Indian Penal Code.

The ‘character’ of a person is what a person “actually is”, while ‘reputation’ is what neighbours and other say, “what he is”. Defamation is concerned with the reputation.

To succeed in the defence of insanity, the accused has to show that he was of unsound mind at the time of commission of the act. The defence of insanity falls under the chapter of General Exception of the Indian Penal Code.

Section 300 of the Indian Penal Code deals with murder although there is no clear definition of murder provided in Section 300 of the Indian Penal Code. Culpable means blameworthy and homicide means killing of a human being by another human being. Homicide may be lawful and unlawful. Section 300 of the Indian Penal Code provides the exceptions, which will constitute culpable homicide not amounting to murder and punishable under Section 304.

Right of private defence does not extend to causing death in case of miscarriage. The Indian Penal Code does not provide such provision.

Section 103 of the Indian Penal Code deals with the provisions that when the right of private defence of property extends to causing death.