Haryana Prevention of Beggary Act, 1971
No: 9 Dated: Mar, 18 1971
The Haryana Prevention of Beggary Act, 1971
Haryana Act No. 9 of 1971
An Act to provide for the prevention of begging, detention, training and employment of beggars and their dependents in Certified Institution and the custody, trial and punishment of beggar offenders.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Haryana in the Twenty-Second Year of the Republic of India, as follows :-
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Haryana Prevention of Beggary Act, 1971.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Haryana.
(3) It shall come into force in any area of the State, on such date or dates as the State Government may by notification appoint in this behalf for that area.
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires :-
(a) "beggar" means any person who is found begging;
(b) "begging" means -
(i) soliciting or receiving alms in a public place whether or not under any pretence, such as singing, dancing, fortune-telling, performing tricks or selling articles;
(ii) having no visible means of subsistence and wandering about or remaining in any public place in such condition or manner as makes it likely that the person doing so exists by soliciting or receiving alms;
(iii) entering on any private premises for the purpose of soliciting or receiving alms;
(iv) exposing or exhibiting, with the object of obtaining or extorting alms, any sore, wound, injury, deformity or disease whether of a human being or of an animal; or
(v) allowing oneself to be used as an exhibit for the purpose of soliciting or receiving alms;
but does not include soliciting or receiving money or food or gifts for a purpose authorised by any law, or authorised in the manner prescribed;
(c) "Certified Institution" means any institution which the State Government provides and maintains for the detention, training and employment of beggars and their dependents and includes a Certified Home and Special Home;
(d) "Certified Home" means a home certified by the State Government or by any subordinate authority empowered by it in this behalf to be a fit place for the reception and detention of beggars, suffering from leprosy or any other infectious or contagious disease notified in this behalf by the State Government;
(e) "Chief Inspector" means the person appointed to be the Chief Inspector of Certified Institutions under Section 18;
(f) "Child" means a person as defined under the East Punjab Children Act, 1949;
(g) "Court" means the Court of a Judicial Magistrate of any class exercising criminal jurisdiction in the area in which this Act is in force;
(h) "Guardian" means a person who looks after or takes care of a child in the absence of, or in the event of the death of his parents;
(i) "Imprisonment" means rigorous or simple imprisonment as described in Section 53 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (XLV of 1860);
(j) "Parent" means the father or the mother of a child;
(k) "Police Officer" means a police officer not below the rank of an Assistant Sub-Inspector;
(l) "Prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(m) "Probation Officer" means an officer appointed to be a Probation Officer under Section 18;
(n) "public place" means and includes any place or precincts thereof to which for the time being the public have or are permitted to have an access, whether on payment or otherwise and includes a passenger bus and a railway compartment;
(o) "Reception Centre" means an institution for the reception and temporary detention of beggars provided by the State Government, or certified to be such under Section 13;
(p) "Special Home" means a home notified by the State Government as suitable for the reception and detention of beggars, not physically capable of doing manual labour but not suffering from leprosy or any other infectious or contagious disease; and
(q) "Superintendent" means a Superintendent of a Reception Centre or a Certified Institution, as the case may be.
3. Power to arrest. - (1) Any Police Officer or other person authorised in this behalf by the State Government may arrest without warrant any beggar :
Provided that no person found begging on any premises, not being a public place shall be so arrested or shall be liable to any proceedings under this Act except on a complaint made by the occupier of such premises.
(2) Such Police Officer or other person shall take or send the person so arrested to the nearest police station :
Provided that the other person may hand him over to a Police Officer if he finds it convenient.
(3) The provisions of Section 61 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, shall apply to arrest made under this section and the officer-in-charge of the police station shall cause the arrested person to be kept in the prescribed manner until he is brought before a Court.