The Indian Penal Code was passed into law on this day.
The First Law Commission, which was chaired by Thomas Babington Macaulay, had prepared the draft of the Indian Penal Code in 1834. This was submitted to Governor-General of India Council in 1835. The code was based on the law of England and some elements were borrowed from the Napoleonic Code and Edward Livingston’s Louisiana Civil Code of 1825.
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The draft was revised again and completed in 1850, but was revised yet again after the 1857 Uprising.
The Indian Penal Code came into operation on January 1, 1862. Much of it survives, though major changes have also been made.
On September 6, 2018, for example, parts of Section 377, which had criminalised same-sex relations, were decriminalised.