The East Punjab Exchange of Prisoners Act, 1948

(1) This Act may be called the East Punjab (Exchange of Prisoners) Act, 1948. (2) It shall extend to the whole of the Union territory of Chandigarh.

In this Act unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context— (a) the expression "Prison" includes a central, district or subsidiary jail, a judicial lock-up, and every place which is used as a place of detention for persons who have been arrested or detained under any law for the time being in force; (b) the expression "prisoner" includes every person who is detained in a prison by order of a competent authority not being a Civil Court; (c) the expression "transferable prisoner" means any Muslim prisoner who is in custody in any prison in Union territory of Chandigarh under lawful orders of a duly empowered Court or other authority, and who is willing to be transferred to Pakistan under the Provisions of Part II; and (d) the expression "repatriated prisoner" means a person who being in custody in a prison or other place of detention in the Province of Pakistan or in any area in Pakistan adjacent to that Province, or which has acceded to Pakistan is conveyed and delivered by a duly authorised official of the Government of Pakistan or the Government of Punjab in Pakistan in compliance with the orders of such Government to an official of the Central Government.

(1) The Central Government may issue a warrant addressed to the officer in charge of any prison to deliver any transferable prisoner confined therein, along with all the records relating to such prisoner and the personal effects taken from him at the time of his admission to a prison to the person authorised in that behalf in the aforesaid warrant. (2) The officer in charge of the prison shall forthwith comply with the warrant issued under sub-section (1), and the person to whom delivery of the prisoner and any record or article is made shall furnish to such officer in charge a written receipt in respect of such delivery. (3) The person taking such delivery shall deliver the transferable prisoner and any records or article relating to that prisoner at such place as the Central Government may specify, and to such official of the Government of Pakistan or of the Government of Punjab in Pakistan, as the Central Government may by general or special order and either by name of designation provide; and thereupon all Courts, Tribunals or authorities whatsoever in Union territory of Chandigarh shall cease to have jurisdiction in relation to such prisoner in respect of the offence or other matter which was the cause of his confinement or detention in Union Territory of Chandigarh. (4) The Central Government may requisition the record of any proceedings (including judicial proceedings) in relation to a prisoner transferred under sub-section (3) from any Court or office where such record may be, and such record shall be sent to any official or other authority, of the Government of Punjab in Pakistan or of the Government of Pakistan.

Where any criminal proceeding pending before a court in Pakistan in regard to any prisoner who has been transferred is received by a District Magistrate of any district in Union territory of Chandigarh for the examination of any witness residing in such district, the District Magistrate shall authorise for the purpose any magistrate subordinate to him, and the provisions of Chapter XL of the Code of Criminal Procedure (V of 1898) shall so far as may be apply with regard to the compliance with such letter of request: Provided that any person duly authorised in that behalf by the Government of Pakistan or by the Government of Punjab in Pakistan shall be entitled to be present at the examination of such witness.

The Central Government may by special order specify the place at which and, either by name or designation, the authority to whom a repatriated prisoner shall be delivered by the official of the Government of Pakistan or the Government of Punjab in Pakistan, and the authority so specified shall receive the repatriated prisoner and shall hold him in custody pending further orders of the Central Government.

The officer in charge of the prison shall detain in custody any repatriated prisoner who, before his repatriation was a convict undergoing a sentence in a prison, according to the tenor of the warrant, writ, or order of commitment to prison, if a copy thereof is available or is supplied to such prisoner.

(1) The Central Government may by order direct any Court, other than the High Court, to enquire into or try any case which may have been pending against a repatriated prisoner immediately before his repatriation: Provided that— (a) the offence charged against such prisoner is also an offence under the law in force in Union Territory of Chandigarh; and (b) such Court would have been competent to try such offence if it had been committed within the local limits of its jurisdiction. (2) On the making of an order under sub-section (1) the Court specified in the order shall proceed to enquire into or try such case according to law, as if the offence to which it relates had been committed within the local limits of its jurisdiction, and all the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (V of 1898) and of all other laws in force in Union territory of Chandigarh shall so far as may be, apply to such proceedings. (3) In any proceedings under sub-section (2), all evidence, both oral and documentary, which has been duly received in the proceedings against the repatriated prisoner held prior to his repatriation, or the copies of such evidence certified under section 76 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (I of 1872), may be treated as evidence in the case for all purposes subject to the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (I of 1872).

(1) The Central Government may in respect of a repatriated prisoner, who, immediately before his repatriation, was under arrest or in police custody or after completion of a police investigation, specify a Judicial Magistrate of the First class who shall have and exercise jurisdiction. (2) Every repatriated prisoner in respect of whom an order is made under sub-section (1) shall be produced without delay before the Magistrate specified in the order, and such Magistrate may take cognizance of an offence that such repatriated prisoner may be alleged by a police officer to have committed, and may grant him bail. (3) Where the repatriation was effected before completion of the police investigation, or the Magistrate is of the opinion that the evidence is deficient, the repatriated prisoner shall be released upon his entering into a bond, with or without sureties, as the Magistrate may direct, to appear if and when so required, and in the meantime, the Magistrate may order such further enquiry into the substance of the allegations as he thinks fit. (4) The Magistrate may, at any stage of the proceedings under sub-section (3), if of the opinion that there is no prospect of securing sufficient evidence to justify continuing proceedings against the repatriated prisoner, direct that such prisoner be discharged from his bond.

The Central Government may, by notification, delegate all or any of its power under sections 5, 6, 7 and 8 to any public servant, either by name or by designation.

In relation to any repatriated prisoner who had been detained, immediately before his repatriation, under any law relating to preventive detention connected with public order, the Central Government shall have the same power in respect of the term of detention as it possesses in relation to a person detained under section 3 of the Punjab Public Safety Act, 1947, as in force in Union territory of Chandigarh.

The High Court of Punjab and Haryana shall, have, in relation to a repatriated prisoner the same jurisdiction which it has in relation to a person who has been arrested or detained within the limits of its appellate jurisdiction, in the same circumstances in which such prisoner was arrested or detained immediately before his repatriation.

The Central Government shall have the same power to suspend, remit or commute a sentence of punishment awarded to a repatriated prisoner, whether before or after his repatriation as it possesses in relation to persons who have been sentenced in the State for offences committed within the State.

It shall be lawful for any person to whom a warrant or order under section 3 or under section 5 or section 6 is directed to receive, hold in custody, convey and deliver the transferable or repatriated prisoner, named in the warrant or order as directed therein and if any such prisoner escapes out of any custody to which he may be delivered in pursuance of any warrant, he may be retaken as a person accused or convicted of an offence against the law of the Union Territory of Chandigarh may be retaken an escape.

The provisions of this Act shall have force and operation notwithstanding anything contrary or repugnant thereto in any other law for the time being in force.

The Central Government may make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act.

The East Punjab (Exchange of Prisoners) Ordinance, 1948, is hereby repealed; and any rules made, notification issued, anything done and any action taken in exercise of any power conferred by or under the said Ordinance shall be deemed to have been made, issued, done or taken in exercise of powers conferred by this Act as if this Act had commenced on the 10th day of January, 1948.