¹120B. Punishment of criminal conspiracy.—(1) Whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death, ²[imprisonment for life] or rigorous imprisonment for a term of two years or upwards, shall, where no express provision is made in this Code for the punishment of such a conspiracy, be punished in the same manner as if he had abetted such offence.

(2) Whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy other than a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable as aforesaid shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding six months, or with fine or with both.

CLASSIFICATION OF OFFENCE

Para I

Punishment—Same as for abetment of the offence which is the object of the conspiracy—According as the offence which is the object of conspiracy is cognizable or non-cognizable—According as offence which is object of conspiracy is bailable or non-bail­able—Triable by court by which abetment of the offence which is the object of conspiracy is triable—Non-compoundable.

Para II

Punishment—Imprisonment for six months or fine, or both—non-cognizable—Bailable—Triable by Magistrate of the first class—Non-compoundable.

Comments

Common intention

(i) Before a person can be convicted with the aid of section 34 IPC, the ingredients that are required to be satisfied are that he along with others committed a criminal act and act was done in furtherance of common intention; Chandra Kant v. State of Madhya Pradesh, AIR 1999 SC 1557.

(ii) The offence under section 120B is an agreement between the parties to do a particular act. Association or relation to lead a conspiracy is not enough to establish the intention to kill the deceased; Sanjiv Kumar v. State of Himachal Pradesh, AIR 1999 SC 782: 1999 (1) JT 716.

(iii) To bring home the charge of conspiracy within the ambit of section 120B it is necessary to establish that there was an agreement between the parties for doing an unlawful Act. It is difficult to establish conspiracy by direct evidence; Vijayan v. State of Kerala, 1999 (3) SCC 54: AIR 1999 SC 1086.

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1. Ins. by Act 8 of 1913, sec. 3.

2. Subs. by Act 26 of 1955, sec. 117 and Sch., for “transporta­tion for life” (w.e.f. 1-1-1956).

¹120A. Definition of criminal conspiracy.- When two or more per­sons agree to do, or cause to be done,—

(1) an illegal act, or

(2) an act which is not illegal by illegal means, such an agree­ment is designated a criminal conspiracy:

Provided that no agreement except an agreement to commit an offence shall amount to a criminal conspiracy unless some act besides the agreement is done by one or more parties to such agreement in pursuance thereof.

Explanation

It is immaterial whether the illegal act is the ultimate object of such agreement, or is merely incidental to that object.]

COMMENTS

Appraisal of law of conspiracy

The prosecution is not required to prove that perpetrators agreed to do or cause to be done the illegal act; Mohd. Usman Mohd. Hussain Maniyar v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1981 SC 162: (1981) SC Cr 381: (1981) Cr LJ 597.

The evidence as to transmission of thoughts sharing the unlawful design may be sufficient; Kehar Singh v. State (Delhi Admn.), (1989) Cr LJ 1: AIR 1988 SC 1883.

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1. Ins. by Act 8 of 1913, sec. 3.

Chapter VA: Criminal Conspiracy

Section 120A: Definition of criminal conspiracy

Section 120B: Punishment of criminal conspiracy