Concept Of Extradition

INTRODUCTION

When one person who has committed an offence or is allege to have committed an offence in one state takes refuge in another state after successfully escaping the former state, in such circumstances, what should the latter do? What will be the duty of the latter in this regard? Should it try him in its own courts and sentence him accordingly or give him up to the country whose laws he has broken? These were the questions that will come up while dealing with the concept like extradition. And the international law does not give a particular answer to these questions. Some jurists like Vattel, Kent, Grotius believe that state is obliged to deliver the accused to the victim state whereas, on the other hand, Jurists like Puffendrof,

As one of the main principle in international peace and security is the mutual cooperation and interests of the state for the maintenance of law and order. But the treaty today is one of the essential pre-requisites of extradition and these treaties are mostly bilateral in nature. Though extradition is founded on a broad principle of international comity that the criminals should not go unpunished and bringing criminals to justice, the states largely depends on the principle that whether there is any extradition treaty signed or not and the procedure to be followed by the courts in deciding whether extradition should be granted or not and on what grounds is decided by the municipal law of the land of the surrendering state.

HISTORY OF THE EXTRADITION LAWS OF INDIA

The laws of extradition in India has undergone many changes over a period of time. The history of the extradition laws in India can be traced back to the pre-independence era. The first extradition act was enacted in the year 1903 when India was still a colony. The evolution of the Indian Extradition laws is divided into three periods of development:

• 1903- 1947

•

This Act was passed before the attainment of the independence of India and was passed to supplement the prior Extradition Act of 1870 and 1873 and the Fugitive Offenders Act 1881. The Extradition Acts of 1870 and 1873 was enacted to deal with extradition of the fugitive offenders only to those foreign states who has entered into treaty with England.

Later on, the Fugitive Offenders Act was enacted in the year 1881 which regulated the extradition of the fugitive offenders between the common wealth countries. But these Acts were not applicable to the native state. Therefore, a new Act was passed in 1903 as the Indian Extradition Act, 1903 and was declared that Chapter II of the Act of 1903 will be applicable to British India as if it were a part of the Extradition Act of 1870. Chapter II of the new Act dealt with the surrender of the fugitive offenders to the foreign states with whom the British India has concluded a treaty.

Period between