Section 2

No person shall be sentenced by a court to rigorous imprisonment or to simple imprisonment; and every law conferring power on a court to pass a sentence of rigorous imprisonment, simple imprisonment or imprisonment of either description, shall be construed as conferring power to pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding the term for which a sentence of rigorous imprisonment, simple imprisonment or imprisonment of either description could have been passed in that case immediately before the commencement of *this Act.

Any person who immediately before the commencement of

*this Act was undergoing or liable to undergo a term of penal servitude under a sentence passed by any court or as a commuted punishment for an offence for which he was sentenced to death, shall be treated thereafter as if he had been sentenced to, or were undergoing or liable to undergo, imprisonment and not penal servitude for that term.

Any person who immediately before the commencement of

*this Act was undergoing or liable to undergo a term of rigorous imprisonment or of simple imprisonment under a sentence passed by any court or as a commuted punishment for an offence for which he was sentenced to death, shall be treated thereafter as if he had been sentenced to, or were undergoing or liable to undergo, imprisonment and not rigorous imprisonment or simple imprisonment for that term.

Life sentences

*3. Where any person is treated as having been sentenced or is hereafter sentenced to imprisonment for life, such sentence shall be deemed for all purposes to be a sentence of imprisonment for thirty years.

*NOTE—For application in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan—see P.U. (A) 407/1991 w.e.f 8 November 1991 and P.U. (A) 408/1991 w.e.f 8 November 1991.

Criminal Justice 7

Abolition of whipping with cat-o’-nine tails, etc.