Penal Code (Amendment) Bill

Bill No. 13/1998

Read the first time on 19th February 1998.

An Act to amend the Penal Code (Chapter 224 of the 1985 Revised Edition).

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the Penal Code (Amendment) Act 1998 and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

New section 73

2. The Penal Code is amended by inserting, immediately after section 72, the following section:

“Enhanced penalties for offences against domestic maids

73.—(1) Subsection (2) shall apply where an employer of a domestic maid or a member of the employer's household is convicted of —

(a)	an offence of causing hurt or grievous hurt to any domestic maid employed by the employer punishable under section 323, 324 or 325;
(b)	an offence of wrongfully confining any domestic maid employed by the employer punishable under section 342, 343 or 344;
(c)	an offence of assaulting or using criminal force to any domestic maid employed by the employer punishable under section 354;
(d)	an offence of doing any act that is intended to insult the modesty of any domestic maid employed by the employer punishable under section 509; or
(e)	an offence of attempting to commit, abetting the commission of, or being a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit, an offence described in paragraphs (a) to (d).

(2) Where an employer of a domestic maid or a member of the employer's household is convicted of an offence described in subsection (1)(a), (b), (c), (d) or (e), the court may sentence the employer of the domestic maid or the member of his household, as the case may be, to one and a half times the amount of punishment to which he would otherwise have been liable for that offence.

(3) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 68) —

(a)	a Magistrate's Court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine all proceedings for the offences punishable under sections 343, 344 and 354 and shall have power to award the full punishment provided under subsection (2) in respect of those offences; and
(b)	a District Court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine all proceedings for an offence punishable under sections 324 and 325 and shall have power to award the full punishment provided under subsection (2) in respect of those offences.

(4) For the purposes of this section —

“domestic maid” means any female house servant employed in, or in connection with, the domestic services of her employer's private dwelling-house and who resides in her employer's private dwelling-house;

“dwelling-house” means a place of residence and includes a building or tenement wholly or principally used, constructed or adapted for use for human habitation;

“member of the employer's household”, in relation to a domestic maid, means a person residing in the employer's private dwelling-house at the time the offence was committed whose orders the domestic maid has reasonable grounds for believing she is expected to obey.”.

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