BNS Section 1 — Short title, commencement and application
CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY
General
Summary
Sub-section (1) gives this law its official name: the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
Sub-section (2) says the law will come into force on a date chosen by the Central Government, which will announce the date through an official notification. The government may also choose different dates for different parts of this law.
Sub-section (3) states that every person who does an act or fails to do something that this law forbids, within India, will be punished only under this law and no other.
Sub-section (4) deals with offences committed outside India. If any person is, under any other law currently in force in India, liable to be tried for an offence committed beyond India, that person will be dealt with under this law for that act just as if the act had been committed within India.
Sub-section (5) extends the application of this law to offences committed by: (a) any citizen of India in any place outside and beyond India; (b) any person on any ship or aircraft registered in India, wherever that ship or aircraft may be; (c) any person in any place outside and beyond India who commits an offence targeting a computer resource located in India. The explanation attached to this sub-section clarifies that the word offence here includes every act committed outside India which, if committed in India, would be punishable under this law. The illustration gives an example: a citizen of India who commits murder outside India can be tried and convicted of murder in any place in India where he may be found.
Sub-section (6) says that nothing in this law affects the provisions of any Act that punishes mutiny and desertion by officers, soldiers, sailors, or airmen in the service of the Government of India, or the provisions of any special or local law.
Official Text
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(1) This Act may be called the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
(2) It shall come into force on such date1 as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Sanhita.
(3) Every person shall be liable to punishment under this Sanhita and not otherwise for every act or omission contrary to the provisions thereof, of which he shall be guilty within India.
(4) Any person liable, by any law for the time being in force in India, to be tried for an offence committed beyond India shall be dealt with according to the provisions of this Sanhita for any act committed beyond India in the same manner as if such act had been committed within India.
(5) The provisions of this Sanhita shall also apply to any offence committed by—
(a) any citizen of India in any place without and beyond India;
(b) any person on any ship or aircraft registered in India wherever it may be;
(c) any person in any place without and beyond India committing offence targeting a computer resource located in India. Explanation.—In this section, the word “offence” includes every act committed outside India which, if committed in India, would be punishable under this Sanhita. Illustration. A, who is a citizen of India, commits a murder in any place without and beyond India. He can be tried and convicted of murder in any place in India in which he may be found.
(6) Nothing in this Sanhita shall affect the provisions of any Act for punishing mutiny and desertion of officers, soldiers, sailors or airmen in the service of the Government of India or the provisions of any special or local law.
Related Judgments
- SC (2025) Vol.3 p.1309 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
- SC (2025) Vol.11 p.291 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
- SC (2025) Vol.6 p.280 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
- SC (2025) Vol.3 p.1531 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
- SC (2024) Vol.8 p.670 — Supreme Court of India (2024)
- SC (2025) Vol.7 p.105 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
- SC (2024) Vol.6 p.129 — Supreme Court of India (2024)
- SC (2025) Vol.4 p.2730 — Supreme Court of India (2025)