Legal provisions regarding Escape from confinement or custody negligently suffered by public servant under section 223 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Escape from confinement or custody negligently suffered by public servant:
“Whoever, being a public servant legally bound as such public servant to keep in confinement any person charged with or convicted of any offence or lawfully committed to custody, negligently suffers .such person to escape from confinement, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”
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Sections 222 and 223 deal with failure on the part of a public servant to keep in confinement, a person charged with an offence or convicted of an offence. Section 223 applies if the person confined is allowed to escape because of the negligence on the part of the public servant while Section 222 applies if the omission to apprehend or failure to keep in confinement a person charged with an offence, or convicted of an offence, is done intentionally by a public servant. The punishment under Section 222 is far graver than the one provided under Section 223.
Section 223 consists of the following three essentials:
(i) The offender must be a public servant;
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(ii) He must be legally bound to keep in confinement a person charged with or convicted of an offence;
(iii) He must negligently suffer such person to escape.
Section 223 will apply only when the custody is lawful. If a public servant is not entitled to keep a person in custody, he does not commit an offence by allowing that person to escape.
The offence under Section 223 is non-cognizable and summons should issue. It is bailable but not compoundable and is triable by any Magistrate.