6 Actus Personalis Moritur Cum Persona (The Crime Dies with the Criminal)

The rule (its accurate maxim-form is actio personalis moritur cum persona — a personalaction dies with the person): criminal liability is personal and non-transmissible — prosecution and punishment end at the accused's death; the case abates; heirs are not punished, nor does the deceased's conviction's punishment transfer to them.Nepali law's operation: under the Code and procedure-era rules, on the accused's death the prosecution abates (with the careful exceptions the law makes: fines already imposed/unpaid may be recoverable as a civil debt from the estate in defined circumstances; civil claims of victims/ compensation orders can survive against the estate — the criminal punishment dies, the civil consequences do not).The doctrine's deeper point (for analysis): criminal law's personal character — punishment as censure of this person's choice — is why it cannot pass by inheritance: contrast the civil estate, which inherits both assets and debts. Corporations complicate the doctrine (the corporation never dies naturally — dissolution being its death; see Unit 6's corporate liability).