The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023, which will repeal and replace the more than 160-year-old Indian Penal Code (IPC), will contain new numbers for some of the most commonly used sections. Here’s a list of the old and new section numbers.
If a Bill that Home Minister Amit Shah introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday becomes the law of the land, Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 302 would no longer prescribe the punishment for murder. It would instead relate to the crime of snatching in the proposed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The BNS has no Section 420 of the IPC, which relates to the offence of cheating, and covers its Section 316.
On Friday, the concluding day of the monsoon session, Shah introduced three Bills in the Lok Sabha to replace colonial-era laws. He said it would overhaul the criminal justice system, end delays, and ensure justice in a maximum of three years. He introduced the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Bill, 2023; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) Bill, 2023; and Bharatiya Sakshya (BS) Bill, 2023 that will replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, Criminal Procedure Act (CrPC), 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 respectively.
Read Also: IPC Section 300: Murder
IPC Section 420: Cheating
IPC Section 420, titled “Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property,” states that anyone who cheats and thereby dishonestly induces a person to deliver any property, or to make, alter, or destroy the whole or any part of a valuable security, or anything signed or sealed, shall face imprisonment up to seven years and be liable to pay a fine.
IN PROPOSED Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: There is no Section 420 in the proposed Sanhita. The offence of cheating is covered under Section 316.
Section 316(1) deems anyone who fraudulently or dishonestly deceives another person, inducing them to deliver any property or intentionally influencing them to do or omit any action they wouldn’t have done or omitted without the deception, and if this act or omission causes or is likely to cause damage or harm to the person’s body, mind, reputation, or property, to have committed the act of ‘cheating.’
Read Also: IPC Section 417: Punishment for cheating
Under Sections 316(2), (3), and (4), the punishment for cheating may extend upto three years, five years, or seven years, along with a fine.
The Opposition criticised the new Bills. The Congress said it was part of the bigger design of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to leave his imprint on everything and that for Modi, everything in the past, whether social, legal, cultural or political, was terrible and needed overhauling. The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu termed it “Hindi imposition” and an “audacious attempt” to tamper with India’s diversity. In recent years, the other Bills with Hindi names are the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill of March 2020 and the Jan Vishwas Bill.
The BNS Bill provides maximum capital punishment for crimes such as mob lynching and rape of minors, the home minister said. The Bill also has provisions to provide community service as one of the punishments for first-time petty offences.
However, while it deletes Section 124 A of the IPC, which deals with sedition, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has Section 150 that lists new offences such as acts of secession, armed rebellion, subversive activities, separatist activities or endangering the sovereignty or unity and integrity of India. The sedition law, known as ‘Rajdroh’ has got a new term for it, ‘Deshdroh’, thus doing away with the reference to the British crown, officials said. Section 124 in the BNS relates to the crime of wrongful restraint.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stated that three immensely significant laws, which will impact all of us, were introduced at the conclusion of this session without any disclosure of discussion. The colonial wolf of sedition brought back sheep’s clothing.”
