Can a person arrested and tried in USA and who had undergone sentence in USA be again tried in India? Double Jeopardy?
Today we bring you an important Supreme Court judgement on an interesting legal conundrum involving the laws of the United States of America, and the domestic laws as existing in India. At the heart of the controversy is the concept of double jeopardy within the meaning of Article 20(2) of the Constitution of India and Section 300(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Article 20 (2) reads as
(2) No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once;
Similarly, Section 300(1) of the Code also prohibits a second trial if the person has either been convicted or acquitted and reads as, "300. Person once convicted or acquitted not to be tried for same offence. - (1) A person who has once been tried by a Court of competent jurisdiction for an offence and convicted or acquitted of such offence shall, while such conviction or acquittal remains in force, not be liable to be tried again for the same offence, nor on the same facts for any other offence for which a different charge from the one made against him might have been made under sub-section (1) of Section 221, or for which he might have been convicted under sub-section (2) thereof."
The question was whether a person arrested and convicted in USA for a Drug offence can again be tried in an Indian Court under the NDPS Act?
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