Mughal Administration c11.48

c11.48

For theft and certain other offences there was the legal punishment of mutilation (cutting off the hand or hands at the wrist). For murder there was the penalty of death, unless the relatives of the victim were willing to spare the murderer’s life by accepting from him the "price of the blood" of the murdered man. [But all these sentences could be inflicted only by the Qazi or Canon Law Judge and not by the civilian magistrate, such as a subahdar was.] But the Quranic law does not permit such punishments as putting out a man's eyes or chopping off his nose and ears, though kings sometimes inflicted the former on their political enemies and rivals and the latter on ordinary criminals, in fits of violent anger. These, however were not judicial acts, and subjects had to be restrained from the exercise of such illegal power.