175. Sub-section (7) of Section 221 of the Code directs that, if the accused having been previously convicted of any offence is liable, by reason of such previous conviction, to enhanced punishment or to punishment of a different kind, for a subsequent offence, and it is intended to prove such previous conviction for the purpose of affecting the punishment which the Court may think fit to award for the subsequent offence, the fact, date and place of the previous conviction shall be stated in the charge, An admission by an accused person of a previous conviction, or the mere recording of the fact that previous convictions have been proved against the accused will not suffice. To render the accused liable to a sentence which cannot be passed except on proof of a previous conviction, the fact, date and place of previous conviction must be set forth in the charge before sentence is passed.
Note 1. - A previous conviction for the purpose of affecting the punishment which a Court is competent to award is a conviction the penalty following which had been undergone by the accused (in whole or in part) at the time when he committed the offence for which he is being tried. Not all convictions on record at the date of the charge are, however, always to be reckoned as previous convictions for the purposes of Section 75 of the India-Penal Code.Note 2. - When a person has been convicted at or about the same time of more offence than one and after undergoing the accumulated penalties for those offences commits another offence and is again convicted, each of the previous convictions is a separate conviction in relation to the present conviction.
