Section 3 of IPC 1860, lays down the provisions for punishment of the offences committed beyond India but may be tried within India.
The Act states section 3 IPC, as Any person liable, by any Indian law, to be tried for an offence committed beyond India shall be dealt according to the provisions of this Code for any act committed beyond India in the same manner as if such act had been committed within India.
Sec 3 IPC, gives criminal jurisdiction to the Courts to try an offence committed by a person beyond or outside the territory of India when he is subject to the Indian laws.
Say for an example-
(i). if a soldier of the Indian Army commits a murder in Nepal, during the course of his service, he would be liable for the punishment of murder and prosecuted for the same in India as per the Indian Laws.
(ii). If an Indian commits the offence of Adultery in any other country, where it is not considered as an offence, earlier he might be prosecuted in India as Adultery was also considered as an offence in India.
However, after the recent judgment passed in the matters relating to Adultery, it is no more considered as an offence in India and has been accordingly decriminalized.
According to Sec 3 Indian Penal Code, the person will be charged for the offence exactly in the same manner as it would have been within the territory of India.
This section provides with the extra-territorial operation as well as Jurisdiction of Indian legislation relating to the criminal laws, but only if the necessary terms of the sections are satisfied and duly fulfilled.
The major ingredient or we can also state it as a major factor of this provision contained in the words “ any person liable by any Indian law”. This clearly states that the section is operational only where an Indian law specifically provides that an act has been committed outside India and is in the circumstances to be dealt with under that particular law in India.
However, the major ingredient for the applicability of this section is, the act committed by the person shall be of such a nature that makes him liable under the purview of this section.
For a brief and better understanding Section 3 Indian Penal code is read along with section 4 that extends the ambit of the extra-territorial jurisdiction of the Code. Both the sections, IPC 3 and section 4 accordingly provides for the actions that can be taken against the person who has committed the offence beyond the territory of India.
