Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–1848

The Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–48 in British India under East India Company rule were a series of legal acts that outlawed thugee—a practice in North and Central India involving robbery and ritualized murder and mutilation on highways—and dacoity, a form of banditry prevalent in the same region, and prescribed punishment for the same.

Title or Description: Provides for the trial and punishment of Thugs. Passed 14 November 1836.

Title or Description: Provides for the trial of persons charged with Thuggee. Passed 7 August 1837.

Title or Description: No person incompetent as a Witness by reason of conviction for any offense. Passed 7 August 1837.

Purpose: This provision rendered individuals previously convicted of a felony allegedly abetted or conspired in by the accused, and thus (under the law of the day) incompetent to testify in any proceeding but for the passage of this Act, to testify against that accused. In practice, the Company or Crown often encouraged such individuals to testify by offering the incentive of reducing the length or severity of their punishment.

Title or description: Provides for trial of persons accused of murder by Thuggee. Passed 15 July 1839.

Title or Description: An Act for the better custody of persons convicted of Thuggee and Dacoity. Passed 9 September 1843.

Title or description: An Act for the better prevention of the crime of Dacoity. Passed 18 November 1843.

Preamble: Whereas it has been considered necessary to adopt more stringent measures for the conviction of professional Dacoits, who belong to certain tribes, systematically employed in carrying on their lawless pursuits in different parts of the country, and for this purpose to extend the provisions of Acts XXX. of 1836, XVIII. of 1837, and XVIII. of 1839, for the prevention of Thuggee, to persons concerned in the perpetration of Dacoity.

Sections:

Title or description: An Act for regulating the proceedings of the Sudder Courts of Ft. William, Ft. St. George, Bombay, and at Agra in regard to sentences of Transportation for Life. Passed 6 July 1844.

Title or description: An Act to facilitate the execution of the sentences of Courts established by the authority of the Governor-General in Council for the administration of Criminal Justice in States or Territories administered by Officers acting under the authority of the East India Company. Passed: 10 April 1847.

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