Criminal Attempt and Punishment

In this book an effort has been made to give a comprehensive treatment to the subject covering conceivable detail of the ‘Provision of Criminal Attempt.’ No aspect worth consideration remains untouched. The subject matter is well arranged and includes appropriate leading cases to encourage the reader to explore the subject and to stimulate his critical power and help his to examine legal provisions from the right perspective. The book contains seven parts, in which major questions have been answered like ‘Are Attempts often prosecuted?’, ‘Why Should the Law Punish A Mere Attempt? Most of the time attempter thinks he will succeed. If all those who succeed are punished, then people will sufficiently deter even from making a bid. So, couldn’t the mere attempter be let off? If you punish attempts at all surely leniency is irrational. Why not punish attempts like consummated crimes? Attempters are as wicked and often as dangerous, as those who complete the crime. So, if the attempter does not repent then he should be punished. This book puts forward a proposal for having a definite definition of attempt under the Indian Penal Code as suggested by the 42nd Law Commission in its report with a few changes. The ‘Test of Proximity’ should be replaced by test of ‘More than merely preparatory’ and the ‘defence of abandonment’ should be available to the attempter like in other legal codes. There should be a uniform approach in punishing attempts to various offences which should not be more than the punishment provided for the successful completion of the commission of the offence keeping in view the present era of theory of reformation.