Legal provisions regarding Assault on High Officials under section 124 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Assault on High Officials:
According to Section 124 of the Indian Penal Code, “whoever, with the intention of inducing or compelling the President of India, or the Governor of any State, to exercise or refrain from exercising in any manner any of the lawful powers of such President or Governor, assaults or wrongfully restrains, or attempts wrongfully to restrain, or overawes, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, or attempts so to overawe, such President or Governor, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.”
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ADVERTISEMENTS:
The object of Section 124 of the code is to protect high officials so as to enable them to function freely without fear of personal harm in the course of discharge of their duties. Section 124 of the code is an amplification of the third clause of Section 121 A of the code. The following are ingredients of Section 124 of the code:
1) It is an offence committed against the President of India or the Governor of a State;
2) The accused must commit one of the following acts:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
i) Assault or attempt to commit assault; or
ii) Wrongful restraint or attempt to restrain; or
iii) Use of criminal force or show of criminal force by the accused.
3) Doing one of the above acts with the intention of inducing or compelling such person to exercise or refrain from exercising any of his lawful powers.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
This protection only extends to them so long as they exercise any of their lawful powers, it being immaterial if they were rightly or properly exercised. If, however, this assault was committed to induce the person to refrain from exercising an unlawful power, the assault would have to be dealt with under the ordinary law.
The offence under Section 124 is cognizable but warrant may be issued in first instance. It is non-bailable and non-compoundable and is exclusively triable by the Court of Session.