BOOK I
GENERAL PROVISIONS
TITLE viii
LAW AS TO PUNISHMENTS
Alternative Discretionary Powers as to Punishments
125. Increase of punishment on repetition of offence.
(1) Where a person, having been convicted of an offence is again convicted, he shall be liable to increased punishment in the cases and manner provided in Part I. of the table annexed to this section and the notes thereto:
Provided that —
(a) a previous conviction shall not be admitted in evidence against a person for the purpose of increasing his punishment, except within the period specified in Part II. of the said table after the expiration of execution of the sentence passed upon that previous conviction, or of any sentence into which that sentence has been commuted;
(b) nothing in this section, or in the said table, shall exempt a person from any liability to which he may be subject under this Code to death or to any greater or other penalty than the punishment mentioned in the said table, and any other different penalty to which he is liable under this Code may be inflicted in addition to the punish-ments mentioned in the said table; and
(c) nothing in this section or in the said table shall apply to libel, or to any act which is an offence on the ground of negligence.
(2) A certificate containing the substance and effect only (omitting the formal parts) of the complaint and conviction for the previous offence, purporting to be signed by the clerk of the court or other officer having the custody of the record of the court where the offender was previously convicted shall, upon proof of the identity of the person of the offender, be sufficient evidence of such previous conviction, without proof of the signature or official character of the person appearing to have signed the same.
(3) Any sentence of imprisonment imposed under this section may include a direction that the offender be kept in solitary confinement.
(4) A conviction of a person for an offence committed by him before attaining the age of eighteen years shall not be admitted in evidence against him for the purpose of increasing his punishment after he has attained the age of twenty years.
(5) For the avoidance of doubt nothing in paragraph (a) of the proviso to subsection (1) or in the table in this section shall prevent a court from imposing any minimum term of imprisonment prescribed by this Code for a second or subsequent conviction for an offence under Title xix and subject to the foregoing any increased punishment authorised to be imposed under this section shall for the purposes of Part I of the table be in addition to the maximum term of imprisonment liable to be imposed for such an offence.
Recidivism of criminal offences
EDIT.