Page:A Collection of the Acts passed by the Governor General of India in Council, 1871.djvu/350

348 Criminal Tribes. [ACT XXVII ACT No. XXVII OF 1871.

PASSED BY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA IN COUNCIL.

(Received the assent of the Governor General on the 12th October 1871).

An Act for the Registration of Criminal Tribes and Eunuchs.

Preamble.

WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for the registration, surveillance and control of certain criminal tribes and eunuchs; It is hereby enacted as follows:-

Short title. Commencement.

1. This Act may be called “The Criminal Tribes’ Act, 1871,” and it shall come into force on the passing thereof.

Local extent.

This section and section twenty extend to the whole of British India: the rest of this Act extends only to the territories under the governments of the Lieutenant-Governors of the North-Western Provinces and the Panjdb, respectively and under the administration of the Chief Commissioner of Oudh.

PART I.

CRIMINAL TRIBES.

Local Government to report what tribes should be declared criminal.

2. If the Local Government has reason to believe that any tribe, gang or class of persons is addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences, it my report the case to the Governor General in Council, and may request his permission to declare such tribe, gang or class to be a criminal tribe.

Report to contain certain particulars.

3. The report shall state the reasons why such tribe, gang or class is considered to be addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences, and, as far as possible, the nature and the circumstances of the offences in which the members of the tribe are supposed to have been concerned; and shall describe the