Section 55: Short imprisonment of three months or less
Statutory text (Thai original)
ถ้าโทษจำคุกที่ผู้กระทำความผิดจะต้องรับมีกำหนดเวลาเพียงสามเดือนหรือน้อยกว่า ศาลจะกำหนดโทษจำคุกให้น้อยลงอีกก็ได้ หรือถ้าโทษจำคุกที่ผู้กระทำความผิดจะต้องรับมีกำหนดเวลาเพียงสามเดือนหรือน้อยกว่าและมีโทษปรับด้วย ศาลจะกำหนดโทษจำคุกให้น้อยลง หรือจะยกโทษจำคุกเสีย คงให้ปรับแต่อย่างเดียวก็ได้
English translation
If the imprisonment that the offender is to receive is only three months or less, the court may fix a lesser term of imprisonment; or if the offender is to receive imprisonment of only three months or less together with a fine, the court may fix a lesser term of imprisonment, or may waive the imprisonment and impose only the fine.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 55 gives the court discretion to soften very short custodial sentences, reflecting a policy that brief imprisonment can do more harm than good. It applies only where the imprisonment to be imposed is three months or less. In that situation the court may reduce the term further; and where the sentence combines such a short term with a fine, the court may either reduce the imprisonment or waive it and impose the fine alone. The power is discretionary, so an appellate court may disagree with how it was exercised, and it operates independently of the mitigation reductions in Sections 52, 53, and 78.
Why this matters in practice
For minor offenses this section can keep a defendant out of prison entirely, since a short term with a fine may be converted to a fine alone. But the power is discretionary, and higher courts have restored the imprisonment where they considered a fine-only outcome too lenient for the conduct, as in defamation cases. If you face a short sentence, well-supported mitigation on your background and the nature of the offense is what persuades a court to use Section 55; consider early legal advice.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 7256/2567 (2024)
Waiving a short imprisonment and imposing only a fine under Section 55 is discretionary and may be reversed on appeal where the appellate court considers a fine alone too lenient for the offense.
For defamation under Section 328 the Court of Appeal imposed three months imprisonment and a 1,000 baht fine, then waived the imprisonment under Section 55. The Supreme Court disagreed with waiving it and restored the three-month term, though it suspended the sentence.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 762/2556 (2013)
Where an appellate court corrects the provision applied to the heavier one, it cannot at the same time raise the punishment, since that would be increasing the sentence contrary to section 212 of the Criminal Procedure Code. A waiver of imprisonment under Section 55 with a fine alone is therefore not to be read as the punishment fixed for the newly applied provision, and a complaint that the fine falls below that provision's minimum does not arise.
The prosecution complained that the fine of 4,000 baht before reduction fell below the minimum for section 28/2 paragraph two of the Entertainment Places Act B.E. 2509. The Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal Region 8 had applied that paragraph only to correct the provision, without raising the punishment, since raising it would have been prohibited by section 212 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The waiver of imprisonment under Section 55 and the fine were the punishment that court fixed as appropriate for the offence under the Firearms Act B.E. 2490, taking the view that imprisonment was not yet warranted, and were not fixed for the entertainment-venue offence.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 164/2553 (2010)
Where each imprisonment term is only three months, Section 55 lets the court exercise discretion to reduce the imprisonment further.
Facing sentences of three months per count, the Supreme Court used its discretion under Section 55 to reduce each term, imposing fourteen days per count over seventeen counts.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 28 Supreme Court decisions (1963 to 2024)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 7256/2567 (2024)
- Decision 762/2556 (2013)
- Decision 4299/2550 (2007)
- Decision 7009/2549 (2006)
- Decision 161/2549 (2006)
- Decision 2517/2541 (1998)
- Decision 2043/2539 (1996)
- Decision 6746/2537 (1994)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 78 20
- Section 29 14
- Section 30 14
- Section 91 12
- Section 83 6
- Section 90 6
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
When can a Thai court waive a short prison term?
Under Section 55, where the imprisonment is three months or less and comes with a fine, the court may waive the imprisonment and impose only the fine, or may simply shorten the term.
Is waiving imprisonment under Section 55 automatic?
No. It is discretionary. Higher courts may restore the imprisonment if they consider a fine-only outcome too lenient for the offense.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 55 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 55. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-55/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 55 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-55/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-55/"><p>If the imprisonment that the offender is to receive is only three months or less, the court may fix a lesser term of imprisonment; or if the offender is to receive imprisonment of only three months or less together with a fine, the court may…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 55 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-55/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.