Legal Provisions of Section 370 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Buying or disposing of any person as a slave:
This section penalises buying or selling etc. or disposing of any person as a slave. It says that whoever imports, exports, removes, buys, sells, or disposes of any person as a slave, or accepts, receives or detains against his will any person as a slave, shall be punished with simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term extending up to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.
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The ambit of the section is quite wide as exporting, importing, removing, buying, selling or disposing of any person as a slave, or accenting, receiving or detaining anyone against his will as a slave has been made punishable by this section. Sections 367, 370 and 371 deal with slavery. Before the coming into existence of the Indian Penal Code, slavery was dealt with by the Indian Slavery Act, 1843 which was repealed by the Repealing and Amending Act, 1952.
A slave is a creature without any right or any status whatsoever, who is or may become the property of another as a mere chattel, the owner having absolute power of disposal by sale, gift or otherwise, and even of life or death over the slave, without being responsible to any legal authority. The horrendous practice of slavery is luckily now almost a thing of the past. But the emergence of the concept of bonded labour is not much different, and it needs to be tackled effectively and with an iron hand forthwith.
Where a document between the seller and purchaser, accused persons, said: ‘I execute to you and give you this day this jenmam deed giving you Vellandi’s son Pulayan Vellan with his heirs. The sum that I received from you in cash to day is ten rupees. For this sum of ten rupees, you should get work done for you by the said Vellan and his offspring that may come into being as your jenmam, and act as you please’, it was held that the accused persons were guilty under this section as the transaction showed a sale of Vellan and his offspring as mere chattels.
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The offence under this section is non-cognizable, bailable and non-compoundable, and is triable by magistrate of the first class.