Section 54: Power to compound offences.

The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972Central Act · Act 53 of 1972

[54. Power to compound offence.-- (1) The Central Government may, by notification, empower the Director of Wild Life Preservation or any other officer not below the rank of Assistant Director of Wild Life Preservation and in the case of a State Government in the similar manner, empower the Chief Wild Life Warden or any officer of a rank not below the rank of a Deputy Conservator of Forests, to accept from any person against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed an offence against this Act, payment of a sum of money by way of composition of the offence which such person is suspected to have committed.

(2) On payment of such sum of money to such officer, the suspected person, if in custody, shall be discharged and no further proceedings in respect of the offence shall be taken against such person.

(3) The officer compounding any offence may order the cancellation of any licence or permit granted under this Act to the offender, or if not empowered to do so, may approach an officer so empowered, for the cancellation of such licence or permit.

(4) The sum of money accepted or agreed to be accepted as composition under sub-section (1) shall, in no case, exceed the sum of [five lakh rupees]:

Provided that no offence, for which a minimum period of imprisonment has been prescribed in section 51, shall be compounded.]

Where this provision sits

Act	The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972
Section	54
Marginal note	Power to compound offences.
Jurisdiction	Central
Status	In force as published by the source

How this provision has been amended

Taken from the footnotes printed with the provision by the source. Where a footnote names the amending instrument, it is quoted as printed.

substituted. . Subs. by s. 32, ibid., for section 54 (w.e.f. 1-4-2003).
substituted, Act 18 of 2022. . Subs. by Act 18 of 2022, s. 34, for "twenty-five thousand rupees" (w.e.f. 1-4-2023).

Find the provision, not just read it

The full text above is free, and it stays free. What a free CourtMesh account adds is everything you cannot do by reading one page at a time:

Search 49,000+ Central and State enactments by what a provision says, not by its number
Jump from any section to every judgment that has applied it
Search 300 million+ Indian court records alongside the statute
Ask a research agent to find and read the case law on a provision for you

Free account. No card. About a minute to create.

Create a free account

Need this as data, not as a page? The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 is one of 49,000+ enactments on CourtMesh. The Indian court cases API serves the case law that cites these provisions over JSON, with API documentation and plans and pricing. See also the judgment library.