BNS Section 13 — Enhanced punishment for certain offences after previous conviction

Summary

A person who has already been convicted by a court in India of an offence under Chapter X or Chapter XVII of this Sanhita, where that offence carried a prison sentence of three years or more, and who then commits another offence under either of those same Chapters that also carries a prison sentence of three years or more, will face a harsher punishment for that later offence. For each such later offence, the punishment will be imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either kind for a term that can go up to ten years.

Official Text

Whoever, having been convicted by a Court in India, of an offence punishable under Chapter X or Chapter XVII of this Sanhita with imprisonment of either description for a term of three years or upwards, shall be guilty of any offence punishable under either of those Chapters with like imprisonment for the like term, shall be subject for every such subsequent offence to imprisonment for life, or to imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years.

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.3 p.1531 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
• SC (2025) Vol.6 p.280 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
• SC (2024) Vol.10 p.930 — Supreme Court of India (2024)
• SC (2024) Vol.8 p.670 — Supreme Court of India (2024)
• SC (2025) Vol.9 p.283 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
• SC (2025) Vol.7 p.105 — Supreme Court of India (2025)

Old <-> New Code Mapping

• IPC §75 — Enhanced punishment for certain offences after previous conviction