What changed on 1 July 2024
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Act No. 45 of 2023, was notified in the Gazette of India on 25 December 2023 together with the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam. The Press Information Bureau states that the provisions of the Sanhita, except sub-section (2) of section 106, and the Adhiniyam have been in force from 1 July 2024. Section 358(1) of the Sanhita provides that the Indian Penal Code is repealed.
The practical effect for a cyber crime complaint is a change of numbers. Most of the sections in the table below were carried over with few changes to the wording, and a section that a police officer or a lawyer once cited as 420 is now cited as 318(4). Where an offence was committed before 1 July 2024, the IPC continues to apply, because section 358(2) of the Sanhita preserves anything duly done under the Code, any liability incurred under it and any proceeding or punishment in respect of an offence committed against it.
The Information Technology Act 2000 was not repealed. The BNS and the IT Act work side by side: the IT Act creates the offences that are specific to computers and networks, such as hacking under section 66 and identity theft under section 66C, and the BNS contains the general offences of cheating, forgery, extortion, intimidation and the rest. The Sanhita points to the IT Act where it needs to. The explanation to section 337 says that a register includes any record of entries kept in electronic form as defined in section 2(1)(r) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
IPC section and BNS section, side by side
The table lists the offences that most often appear in complaints about online fraud, fake profiles, threats and harassment. The IPC numbers come from the correspondence table that matches each section of the BNS to the Code, and the wording and punishments are taken from the text of the Act as published in the Gazette.
For a section that is not in this table, the IPC to BNS converter looks up any IPC number, or any BNS number, in the full correspondence table of all 358 sections.
| Offence | IPC | BNS | What the BNS provides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheating | Section 415 | Section 318(1) | Deceiving a person so that they deliver property or do or omit something they would not otherwise do, causing or likely to cause harm to body, mind, reputation or property. |
| Punishment for cheating | Section 417 | Section 318(2) | Imprisonment up to 3 years, or fine, or both. The upper limit was 1 year in the IPC. |
| Cheating a person you are bound to protect | Section 418 | Section 318(3) | Imprisonment up to 5 years, or fine, or both. |
| Cheating and inducing delivery of property | Section 420 | Section 318(4) | Imprisonment up to 7 years and fine. |
| Cheating by personation | Sections 416 and 419 | Section 319 | Cheating by pretending to be another person, real or imaginary. Imprisonment up to 5 years, or fine, or both. The upper limit was 3 years in the IPC. |
| Forgery | Sections 463 and 465 | Section 336(1) and (2) | Making a false document or false electronic record with intent to cause damage or injury or to commit fraud. Imprisonment up to 2 years, or fine, or both. |
| Forgery for the purpose of cheating | Section 468 | Section 336(3) | Imprisonment up to 7 years and fine. |
| Forgery to harm reputation | Section 469 | Section 336(4) | Imprisonment up to 3 years and fine. |
| Using a forged electronic record as genuine | Section 471 | Section 340(2) | Punished in the same manner as if the person had forged it. |
| Extortion | Sections 383 and 384 | Section 308(1) and (2) | Putting a person in fear of injury to make them deliver property. One illustration is a threat sent by message through an electronic device. Imprisonment up to 7 years, or fine, or both. The upper limit was 3 years in the IPC. |
| Criminal intimidation | Sections 503, 506 and 507 | Section 351 | Threatening another “by any means” with injury to person, reputation or property. Up to 2 years, or fine, or both; up to 7 years for threats of death or grievous hurt; a further 2 years where the threat is anonymous. |
| Criminal breach of trust | Sections 405 and 406 | Section 316(1) and (2) | Dishonest misappropriation of property entrusted to a person. Imprisonment up to 5 years, or fine, or both. The upper limit was 3 years in the IPC. |
| Voyeurism | Section 354C | Section 77 | Watching or capturing the image of a woman in a private act, or disseminating the image. 1 to 3 years and fine, and 3 to 7 years and fine on a later conviction. |
| Stalking | Section 354D | Section 78 | Includes a man who monitors a woman’s use of the internet, e-mail or any other electronic communication. Up to 3 years and fine, and up to 5 years and fine on a later conviction. |
| Insulting the modesty of a woman | Section 509 | Section 79 | Words, sounds, gestures or objects, or intruding on her privacy. Simple imprisonment up to 3 years and fine. |
| Defamation | Sections 499 and 500 | Section 356(1) and (2) | Simple imprisonment up to 2 years, or fine, or both, or community service. |
| Obscene material | Section 292 | Section 294 | The deemed-obscene test now covers “display of any content in electronic form”. First conviction up to 2 years and fine up to Rs 5,000; later conviction up to 5 years and fine up to Rs 10,000. |
| Criminal conspiracy | Sections 120A and 120B | Section 61 | The agreement definition and its punishment now sit in one section. |
Several punishments rose when the sections were carried over. The upper limit for simple cheating went from one year to three, for cheating by personation from three years to five, for extortion from three years to seven and for criminal breach of trust from three years to five. The table notes each of these where it applies.
Online fraud and impersonation: sections 318 and 319
Section 318(1) defines cheating as deceiving a person and fraudulently or dishonestly inducing them to deliver property, or to do or omit to do anything they would not do if they were not deceived, where that causes or is likely to cause damage or harm to them in body, mind, reputation or property. A dishonest concealment of facts counts as deception. The four sub-sections that follow set the punishment according to what the cheating achieved, from up to three years where there is only cheating, to up to seven years and a fine where the person deceived was induced to deliver property or to alter a valuable security.
Section 319 deals with cheating by personation, which the section describes as pretending to be some other person, knowingly substituting one person for another, or representing that oneself or any other person is a person other than the one who really is. The offence is committed whether the person impersonated is real or imaginary. In the plain words of the section, a fake profile or a call from a person who claims to be an official is capable of falling within it when the pretence is used to cheat. Section 66D of the Information Technology Act covers cheating by personation by using a computer resource, and a complaint can mention both.
Forgery and electronic records: sections 335 to 340
The Sanhita applies forgery to electronic records. Section 335 says that a person makes a false document or false electronic record when they dishonestly or fraudulently make or transmit an electronic record, or affix an electronic signature on one, intending it to be believed that it was made, transmitted or affixed by or with the authority of a person who, as they know, did not make it or authorise it. Section 336 provides the punishments, and section 340(2) punishes the use of a forged electronic record as genuine in the same manner as forgery. The Sanhita also defines a document as including an electronic and digital record, so a screenshot, an e-mail or a message log is a document for these sections when it is intended to be used as evidence.
Threats, extortion and harassment: sections 308, 351, 77 and 78
Extortion under section 308 now carries an illustration that a threat sent through an electronic device, demanding money, is extortion. That illustration was added in the Sanhita and it describes the pattern of an online blackmail demand. Section 351 covers threats made by any means, and a threat that is anonymous attracts an additional term of up to two years. Section 78 on stalking includes monitoring a woman’s use of the internet, e-mail or any other electronic communication, and section 77 on voyeurism covers the dissemination of an image of a woman in a private act. The provisions of section 66E and sections 67 and 67A of the IT Act address overlapping conduct, and a case may rely on both statutes.
Cyber-crimes as organised crime: sections 111 and 112
Section 111 is new. It defines organised crime as continuing unlawful activity, including cyber-crimes, extortion and economic offences, carried on by a member of an organised crime syndicate or on its behalf, by violence, threat, intimidation, coercion or other unlawful means to obtain a material benefit. An organised crime syndicate means a group of two or more persons. The activity must be a cognizable offence punishable with at least three years, and more than one charge-sheet must have been filed in the preceding ten years. The economic offences it names include forgery, criminal breach of trust and mass-marketing fraud or any scheme to defraud several persons or a financial institution.
The punishment is imprisonment of not less than five years that may extend to life and a fine of not less than Rs 5 lakh, and death or life imprisonment where a death results. Section 112 creates a separate offence of petty organised crime for a member of a group or gang who commits theft, snatching, cheating, unauthorised selling of tickets or similar acts.
The evidence law changed with it
The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 replaced the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 from the same date. Section 61 provides that an electronic or digital record is not denied admissibility only because it is electronic, and section 63 sets the conditions and the certificate that a party must file. A complaint for any of the offences above will be proved, in part, through electronic records, so the two statutes are read together. The conditions of section 63 and the form of the certificate are set out on the page on section 63 of the BSA, and the way to file a complaint is on the page on how to report a cyber crime online.
Frequently asked questions
What is the BNS section for section 420 of the IPC?
Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. It covers cheating that dishonestly induces the person deceived to deliver any property, and provides imprisonment up to seven years and fine. The IPC section 415 definition of cheating is now section 318(1).
Does the BNS replace the Information Technology Act 2000?
No. Section 358 of the BNS repeals the Indian Penal Code only. The IT Act 2000 continues to apply, and the BNS itself refers to it: the explanation to section 337 takes the meaning of electronic form from section 2(1)(r) of the IT Act.
Which law applies to an offence committed before 1 July 2024?
The Indian Penal Code. Section 358(2) of the BNS provides that the repeal does not affect anything duly done under the Code, any liability incurred under it, or any proceeding in respect of a penalty for an offence committed against it.
Is cyber crime an organised crime under the BNS?
It can be. Section 111(1) lists cyber-crimes among the continuing unlawful activities that constitute organised crime when carried on by an organised crime syndicate, which is a group of two or more persons. Organised crime is punishable with imprisonment of not less than five years that may extend to life, and a fine of not less than Rs 5 lakh.
What replaced section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act?
Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, which governs the admissibility of electronic records. See the page on section 63 of the BSA for the conditions and the certificate.