The study subjects consisted of 80 male judicial magistrates and judges, most of whom were attached to courts within Greater Calcutta. The subjects had judicial experience of at least 5 years. The rating schedule administered to the subjects consisted of 40 items (offense descriptions) selected unanimously by three experts from 141 offense descriptions used by Mukerji and Basu (1980). For each offense, the gradient of seriousness was classified according to six categories. Although the perceptions of the subjects regarding offense seriousness generally accorded with the values assigned in the penal code, the subjects did attribute greater seriousness to sex offenses, immoral trafficking, assaultive offenses, theft, and excise crime. Subjects attributed less seriousness than the penal code to offenses involving grievous hurt which falls short of injury or death from premeditated violence. The results of this study suggest the need for a larger study that compares offense-seriousness perceptions across divergent groups. This could evolve into a procedure for monitoring changes in societal perceptions of the gravity of various behaviors which should be reflected in the penal code. Offense descriptions are appended along with tabular data and 15 references.