279. Fines should be regulated so as to accord with the circumstances of the offender and should not under any circumstances be excessive (Section 63 of the Indian Penal Code). Fines are sometimes imposed which are manifestly impossible of realization, while there is reason to fear that many which are imposed in petty cases, though realized, are paid only with difficulty. In dealing with petty cases fines should not be fixed at particular amounts as a matter of course, without much thought as to how they will be felt by the particular individual on whom they are imposed. It is a first principle in inflicting this mode of punishment that it is necessary to have as much regard to the pecuniary circumstances of the offender as to the character and magnitude of the offence. Fines should never in any case be imposed which are not likely to be realized at all, and they should never be imposed in petty cases with such severity as not to be easily realizable. Indiscriminate imposition of fines without due regard to the capacity of the accused to pay only result in the waste of the time of the Court and the police in attempting to realize the amounts, in the harassment of the convict or his dependents, or in the vicarious payment of the fine by persons interested in the convict.
