Law of Homicide in Bangladesh: Transformation, Comparison and Accommodating Compounding of Offences

Abstract

The official legal system in the sub-continent was Islamic law before the British administration. They regarded Islamic criminal law as inconsistent, too lenient and repugnant to natural justice for the maintenance of law and order. From the time of Warren Hastings, the process of modification of Islamic criminal law started through the processes of translation, legislation and adjudication which ended with the enactment of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. This research is descriptive, analytical and to a limited extent qualitative in nature. This study examined the reasons and process of transformation of criminal law in Bengal from Islamic criminal law to the Penal Code, and in particular to show the similarities in the law of homicide between them. It has been found that the basis of the Penal Code, 1860 is Islamic criminal law devoid of some of the rules of qisas and diyat. In Islamic criminal law the heirs of the victim have a major role to play after awarding punishment by the court. The heirs can demand retaliation, qisas as revenge or compromise with blood money, diyat as compensation, similar to the provision of compounding of offence, or simply forgive the offender. No such status of heirs exists in the criminal laws of Bangladesh. The study also discussed in detail compounding of offence in the criminal procedural law of Bangladesh and suggested to made it applicable to third degree homicide or homicide with guilty knowledge. Application of compounding of offence to third degree homicide will reduce backlog of criminal cases, accused will not get acquittal for want of evidence and victim's family would be benefited.