BNS Section 7 — Sentence may be (in certain cases of imprisonment) wholly or partly rigorous or simple

Summary

Whenever a court is sentencing someone for an offence that allows imprisonment of either kind, the court has the power to decide in its order whether the entire jail term will be rigorous (with hard labour), entirely simple (without hard labour), or partly rigorous and partly simple. The court can split the total imprisonment into any combination of the two types as it sees fit.

Official Text

In every case in which an offender is punishable with imprisonment which may be of either description, it shall be competent to the Court which sentences such offender to direct in the sentence that such imprisonment shall be wholly rigorous, or that such imprisonment shall be wholly simple, or that any part of such imprisonment shall be rigorous and the rest simple.

Related Judgments

• SC (2024) Vol.10 p.930 — Supreme Court of India (2024)
• 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 (2025) Vol.4 p.2730 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
• SC (2024) Vol.8 p.670 — Supreme Court of India (2024)
• ST ATE BANK OF INDIA v. K.C. THARAKAN AND ORS. OCTOBER 4, 2005 B — Supreme Court of India (S)

Old <-> New Code Mapping

• IPC §60 — Sentence may be (in certain cases of imprisonment) wholly or partly rigorous or simple