Legal Provisions of Section 395 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Punishment for dacoity:
This section prescribes punishment for dacoity. It says that whoever commits dacoity shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with rigorous imprisonment for a term extending up to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine. The offence is very serious and, therefore, the severe punishment. It is important to note that there is no simple imprisonment provided under this section.
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Besides this section which punishes dacoity, section 396 punishes dacoity with murder or grievous hurt, section 397 punishes robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievious hurt, section 398 punishes attempted dacoity armed with a deadly weapon, section 399 punishes making preparation to commit dacoity, section 400 penalises belonging to a gang of dacoits, and section 402 penalises assembling for the purpose of committing dacoity.
Where out of five accused persons three were acquitted by the trial court, the fourth was alleged to have snatched a gold chain from the victim by brandishing a knife at her while the fifth was alleged to have restrained a prosecution witness, the proper order would be to convict them under section 392 and not under section 395.
Where the facts and all the circumstances of the case of dacoity pointed out towards the guilt of the accused persons, merely because the looted property was not recovered would not make any difference to the case and the accused would still be convicted. Where out of the nine named accused persons in the first information report in a case of dacoity only one person was left while the other eight were acquitted, that single person could not be convicted under this section.
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Where the appellants in a case of dacoity were young men and they had already undergone about one and a half years of their sentence, and they had in fact not caused injury to any person when they had committed the dacoity, it was held that the sentence awarded against them could be reduced to that already undergone by them.
Section 395 read with section 149
The Supreme Court has ruled that since there are already at least five persons involved in a case of dacoity, the joinder of section 149 is a mere surplusage.
Section 395 read with section 511
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Since the nature of the offence of dacoity is a robbery or attempted robbery committed by five or more persons, there cannot be a case of attempt to commit dacoity. Thus sections 395 and 511 can never co-exist.
The offence under section 395 is cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable, and is triable by court of session.