Section 31 - Sentence in cases of conviction of several offences at one trial
(1)When a person is convicted at one trial of two or more offences, the Court may, subject to the provisions of section 71 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860), sentence him for such offences, to the several punishments, prescribed therefore which such Court is competent to inflict; such punishments when consisting of imprisonment to commence the one after the expiration of the other in such order as the Court may direct, unless the Court directs that such punishments shall run concurrently.
(2) In the case of consecutive sentences, it shall not be necessary for the Court by reason only of the aggregate punishment for the several offences being in excess of the punishment which it is competent to inflict on conviction of a single offence, to send the offender for trial before a higher Court:
Provided that--
(a) in no case shall such person be sentenced to imprisonment for a longer period than fourteen years;
(b) the aggregate punishment shall not exceed twice the amount of punishment which the Court is competent to inflict for a single offence.
(3) For the purpose of appeal by a convicted person, the aggregate of the consecutive sentences passed against him under this section shall be deemed to be a single sentence.
Any sentences of imprisonment in default of fine have to be in excess of, and not concurrent with, any other sentence of imprisonment to which the prisoner may have sentenced. The Court has no power to make various sentences of imprisonment in default of payment of fine concurrent with each other1.
In view of ss. 53 and 64 IPC, substantive sentence and sentence in default of fine are two distinct sentences hence, it was held that they could not be made concurrent2.
1- Mrinunjoy Bose, AIR 1967 Pat 286
2- Sukumaran v. State of Kerala, 1993 Cr.L.J. 3228 (Ker)
Sec.53 I.P.C. Punishment
The punishments to which offenders are liable under the provisions of this Code are-
First- Death;
[Secondly- Imprisonment for life;]
[***]
Fourthly- imprisonment, which is of two descriptions, namely:-
(1) Rigorous, that is, with hard labour;
(2) Simple,
Fifthly- Forfeiture of property;
Sixthly- Fine.
Sec.64 I.P.C. Sentence of imprisonment for non-payment of fine
[In every case, of an offence punishable with imprisonment as well as fine, in which the offender is sentenced to a fine, whether with or without imprisonment, and in every case of an offence punishable [with imprisonment or fine, or] with fine only, in which the offender is sentenced to a fine,]
it shall be competent to the Court which sentences such offender to direct by the sentence that, in default of payment of the fine, the offender shall suffer imprisonment for a certain term, which imprisonment shall be in excess of any other imprisonment to which he may have been sentenced or to which he may be liable under a commutation of a sentence.
Sec.71 I.P.C. Limit of punishment of offence made up of several offences
Where anything which is an offence is made up of parts, any of which parts is itself an offence, the offender shall not be punished with the punishment of more than one of such his offences, unless it be so expressly provided.
[Where anything is an offence falling within two or more separate definitions of any law in force for the time being by which offences are defined or punished, or
where several acts, of which one or more than one would by itself or themselves constitute an offence, constitute, when combined, a different offence,
the offender shall not be punished with a more severe punishment than the court which tries him could award for any one of such offences.]
Illustrations
(a) A gives Z fifty strokes with a stick. Here A may have committed the offence of voluntarily causing hurt to Z by the whole beating, and also by each of the blows which make up the whole beating. If A were liable to punishment for every blow, he might be imprisoned for fifty years, one for each blow. But he is liable only to one punishment for the whole beating.
(b) But if, while A is beating Z, Y interferes, and A intentionally strikes Y, here, as the blow given to Y is no part of the act whereby A voluntarily causes hurt to Z, A is liable to one punishment for voluntarily causing hurt to Z, and to another for the blow given to Y.