criminal-law india federalism
is it possible to override a provision regarding whether state or national law applies to a crime?
<p>if a law has the following provisions</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where an act or omission constitutes an offence punishable under this Act and also under any other Central or State Act, then, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, the offender found guilty of such offence shall be liable to punishment only under such Act as provides for punishment which is greater in degree.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is there any legal principles or laws that could allow for the defendant/accused to be charged and punished under those laws that provide for a lesser punishment ?</p>
<p>so far the most relevant law I've found is the general clauses act 1897 section which states that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where an act or omission constitutes an offence under two or more enactments, then the offender shall be liable to be prosecuted and punished under either or any of those enactments, but shall not be liable to be punished twice for the same offence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>but it doesn't stand up to the non obstante clause I'm referring to anyway</p>

<h2>No.</h2>
<p>The general clauses act of 1897 allowes to charge with <em>either</em> but <em>not both</em> laws that are possible, depending on the choice of the prosecutor.</p>
<p>The law you quoted <em>without source</em> is not circumventing that, it just alters the punishment tables for <strong>all</strong> involved laws to be the biggest of all involved laws.</p>
<p>Let's take a fictional set of laws:</p>
<ul>
<li>the state says that jaywalking is punished by 1 day in jail.</li>
<li>the central law says that jaywalking is punished by 1 week in jail.</li>
<li>the free streets act (FSA) says that jaywalking is punished by 1 month in jail <strong>and</strong> it has that provision.</li>
<li>the jaywalking prevention act (JPA) says that jaywalking is punished by 1 year in jail.</li>
</ul>
<p>As a result, under any of the four laws, the punishment is <strong>always</strong> 1 year, never the lesser ones, because the FSA overrides the state and central law and even its own punishment by that of the JPA.</p>
