IPC Section 71 - Limit of punishment of offence made up of several offences

71. Limit of punishment of offence made up of several offences. Where anything which is an

offence is made up of parts, any of which parts is itself an offence, the offender shall not be punished with

the punishment of more than one of such his offences, unless it be so expressly provided.

2[Where anything is an offence falling within two or more separate def initions of any law in force for

the time being by which offences are defined or punished, or

where several acts, of which one or more than one would by itself or themselves constitute an

offence, constitute, when combined, a different offence,

the offende r shall not be punished with a more severe punishment than the Court which tries him

could award for any one of such offences].

Illustration s

(a) A gives Z fifty strokes with a stick. Here A may have committed the offence of voluntarily causing hurt to Z by the

whole beating, and also by each of the blows which make up the whole beating. If A were liable to punishment for every blow,

he might be imprisoned for fifty years, one for each blow. But he is liable only to one punishment for the whole beating.

(b) But, if, while A is beating Z, Y interferes, and A intentionally strikes Y, here, as the blow given to Y is no part of the act

whereby A voluntarily causes hurt to Z, A is liable to one punishment for voluntarily causing hurt to Z, and to a nother for the

blow given to Y.