Two of them of the British Parliament, the extradition act of England and the fugitive offenders act of England, and the third, the extradition act of India, which has regulated the procedure governing extradition from this country. Both the extradition act and the fugitive offenders act passed by the British parliament became inapplicable after our independence because the first act applied to such territories as were notified as foreign territories by an order in council of the British crown, and the second related to the British possessions and colonies. The supreme court held that the fugitive offenders act did not any longer apply to this country. It was, therefore, felt absolutely necessary that a new longer apply to this country. It was, therefore, felt absolutely necessary that a new law should be passed regulating the question of extradition of fugitive criminals from this country and the matter was referred to the law commission. The government received a report from the law commission, on the basis of which the present bill has been framed. The scheme follows mainly one pattern in substance though in regard to the question of procedure for countries which are not commonwealth countries, and commonwealth countries which are notified as such and as offering an arrangeemnt for extradition of criminals with the government of India, the procedure is a little different though, again, in substance it is the same. The whole question boiled down to certain fundamental principles which we have followed. First of all, we have defined in the second schedule "extradition" and "offences". That means that no treaty between the government of India and any foreign country or any commonwealth country can include any offence which is not within the second schedule but it can enter into a treat with regard to some of these offences, either all or some of them. The second principle that we have followed is that there must be a proper safeguard in the matter of extraditing criminals from this country who are sought to be extradited by their parent states on changes of criminal offences.
