Sections 6–52A IPC vs Sections 2–3 BNS — General Explanations and Definitions

In India, Sections 2 and 3 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) replaced Chapter II of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) — Sections 6 to 52A — from 1 July 2024. Most definitions carry over; the changes include transgender persons in "gender", a new "child" definition, and electronic records within "document".

At a glance

These are definitions and rules of construction, not offences, so the First Schedule to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) does not classify them.

What changed

The substantive changes

• Expanded — gender (IPC 8 → BNS 2(10)): "whether male or female" becomes "whether male, female or transgender". A new Explanation gives "transgender" the meaning in clause (k) of Section 2 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
• New — child (BNS 2(3)): "'child' means any person below the age of eighteen years". The IPC had no general definition.
• Expanded — document (IPC 29 → BNS 2(8)): the definition adds "and includes electronic and digital record". Explanation 1 reads "a Court" for "a Court of Justice"; the five Illustrations are lettered (a) to (e); the endorsement Illustration reads "shall be construed" for "must be construed".
• Modified — electronic record (IPC 29A): Section 29A IPC gave "electronic record" the meaning in Section 2(1)(t) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. There is no separate BNS clause; new clause 2(39) gives words not defined in the Sanhita but defined in the Information Technology Act, 2000 or the BNSS the meanings assigned there.
• Modified — movable property (IPC 22 → BNS 2(21)): "The words 'movable property' are intended to include corporeal property of every description" becomes "'movable property' includes property of every description". The exclusion of land and things attached to the earth is unchanged. What the removal of "corporeal" adds is not stated in the text.
• Modified — possession through another (IPC 27 → BNS 3(3)): property in the possession of "a person's wife, clerk or servant" becomes "a person's spouse, clerk or servant". The Explanation refers to "this sub-section" instead of "this section".
• Modified — year and month (IPC 49 → BNS 2(20)): the year or month is reckoned according to the "Gregorian calendar", not the "British calendar"; the order becomes "month … year".
• Modified — public servant (IPC 21 → BNS 2(28)): clauses Second to Twelfth become (a) to (k). (a) "Every Commissioned Officer in the Military, Naval or Air Forces of India" becomes "every commissioned officer in the Army, Navy or Air Force"; (d) drops "juryman"; (k)(ii) replaces "section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956" with "clause (45) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013" and takes "local authority" from Section 3(31) of the General Clauses Act, 1897; and the Explanation's "election" ends "by, or under any law for the time being in force" instead of "by, or under, any law prescribed as by election". The Rajasthan State amendment printed in the India Code IPC text (a clause Thirteenth for examination staff) has no counterpart in Section 2(28).
• Modified — offence (IPC 40 → BNS 2(24)): the general rule is the same — "a thing made punishable by this Sanhita". The two lists of provisions in which "offence" also covers things punishable under a special or local law are re-drawn to BNS numbering (clause (a) begins with Chapter III, the General Exceptions); the qualifying term "six months or upwards" becomes "six months or more"; and "when the thing punishable" becomes "when the act punishable".
• Modified — harbour (IPC 52A → BNS 2(13)): the IPC definition opened "Except in section 157, and in section 130 in the case in which the harbour is given by the wife or husband of the person harboured". Section 2(13) BNS drops that exception, and "enumerated in this section" becomes "enumerated in this clause". That exception kept the extended definition out of Section 157 IPC altogether, and out of Section 130 IPC where the harbour was given by the spouse. Their counterparts, Section 189(7) and Section 158 BNS, contain no such limitation, so, on a reading of the text, the extended definition now applies to both. (Compare Section 164 BNS, harbouring a deserter, whose own Exception covers harbour given "by the spouse of the deserter".)
• Omitted — IPC 14, 18 and 50 ("servant of Government", "India", "section"): no counterpart; a person "in the service or pay of the Government" is a public servant under Section 2(28)(k)(i).

The drafting changes

• "denotes" / "is" / "The word X includes" recast as "X means" or "X includes": Sections 10 to 12, 17, 19, 20, 23 to 25, 30, 31, 41, 42, 44 to 48 and 51 IPC. "Man" also drops the article ("a male human being" → "male human being").
• Judge (IPC 19 → BNS 2(16)): "denotes not only every person who is officially designated as a Judge, but also every person" becomes "means a person who is officially designated as a Judge and includes a person". Only the Magistrate Illustration (IPC (b)) is kept; the Collector, Madras panchayat and committal-Magistrate Illustrations are dropped.
• Court (IPC 20 → BNS 2(5)): "Court of Justice" becomes "Court", and the same substitution runs through the Sanhita (for example in 2(23) "oath"). The Madras panchayat Illustration is dropped.
• Reason to believe (IPC 26 → BNS 2(29)): a comma is added — "believe a thing, if he has sufficient cause".
• Act and omission (IPC 33 → BNS 2(1), 2(25)): the India Code IPC text prints "denotes as well as series of acts" and "as well a series of omissions"; BNS 2(1) reads "as well a series of acts", and BNS 2(25) reads "as well as a series of omissions".
• Valuable security (IPC 30 → BNS 2(31)): the India Code IPC text of the Illustration reads "any person who may become the unlawful holder of it"; BNS 2(31) reads "lawful holder".
• Rules of construction (IPC 6, 7, 32, 35 to 38 → BNS 3): "Code" becomes "Sanhita" and "part" becomes "Part"; Section 3(8) spells "cooperates" without a hyphen. The India Code IPC Illustration to Section 36 prints "party by beating Z"; BNS 3(7) reads "partly".

Statutory text (relevant extract)

Extract, Section 22 IPC (repealed from 1 July 2024):

The words "movable property" are intended to include corporeal property of every description, except land and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything which is attached to the earth.

Extract, Section 2 BNS, clauses (3), (8) (opening words), (10) and (21):

(3) "child" means any person below the age of eighteen years;

(8) "document" means any matter expressed or described upon any substance by means of letters, figures or marks, or by more than one of those means, and includes electronic and digital record, intended to be used, or which may be used, as evidence of that matter.

(10) "gender".—The pronoun "he" and its derivatives are used of any person, whether male, female or transgender.

(21) "movable property" includes property of every description, except land and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything which is attached to the earth;

How it works — how Sections 2 and 3 are used

1. Definitions are read subject to the General Exceptions — Section 3(1). Illustration (a): a definition of an offence does not say that a child under seven cannot commit it, but it is read subject to that general exception. A term explained once carries that meaning throughout (Section 3(2)), and Section 2 applies "unless the context otherwise requires".
2. The mental-element definitions drive the property offences. "Dishonestly" (2(7)) turns on intended wrongful gain or loss, defined in 2(36) to 2(38) to include retaining wrongfully and being kept out of property; "fraudulently" (2(9)) on intent to defraud; "reason to believe" (2(29)) on sufficient cause to believe; "voluntarily" (2(33)) on means intended, or known or believed likely, to cause the effect.
3. Joint liability — Section 3(4) to 3(9). Acts include illegal omissions (3(4)); common intention (3(5), on the common intention page); joining an act criminal only by reason of knowledge or intention (3(6)); effects caused partly by act and partly by omission (3(7)); co-operation by doing one of several acts (3(8)); and different offences by the same act (3(9)).
4. Special and local law. In the provisions listed in 2(24)(a), "offence" includes things punishable under a special law (2(30)) or local law (2(18)); in those listed in 2(24)(b), only where that law punishes with imprisonment of six months or more.

What this means in practice

For the investigating officer and prosecutor

• A charge that turns on "document" (forgery, false documents) can rest on an electronic or digital record under the words of Section 2(8) itself. See the forgery page.
• "Harbour" in Sections 158 and 189(7) BNS takes the full Section 2(13) meaning, on a reading of the text (see "What changed").
• Where a statute deems a person a public servant "within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code", Section 8(1) of the General Clauses Act, 1897 reads references to a repealed and re-enacted provision "as references to the provision so re-enacted", unless a different intention appears — on a reading of Section 8(1), Section 2(28) BNS.

For the accused and defence advocate

• Where the charge uses "dishonestly" or "fraudulently", test the facts against the precise definition: wrongful gain or loss for the first; deceit and injury for the second (Dr. Vimla, below).
• For property offences, "movable property" in Section 2(21) no longer contains "corporeal". Whether that extends offences such as theft to intangible property is not answered by the text; no Supreme Court judgment on the point was read for this page.
• Section 3(3): property held by the accused's spouse, clerk or servant on the accused's account is in the accused's possession.

Judgments that still matter

Dr. Vimla v. Delhi Administration, [1963] Supp. 2 S.C.R. 585 — 29 November 1962. A four-Judge Bench (S.J. Imam, K. Subba Rao, N. Rajagopala Ayyangar and J.R. Mudholkar JJ.; judgment by Subba Rao J.) considered a doctor who bought a car in her minor daughter's name, signed insurance papers and claim receipts as "Nalini", and was convicted of forgery. It held that "Deceit is not an ingredient of the definition of the word "dishonestly" while it is an important ingredient of the definition of the word "fraudulently"", and that "defraud" involves two elements, deceit and injury to the person deceived; injury includes non-economic harm to body, mind or reputation, and in the rare case of an advantage to the deceiver without a corresponding loss to the deceived, the Court treated the second element as satisfied. Her deceit neither secured her an advantage nor caused the insurer loss or injury, so the appeal was allowed and the convictions under Sections 467 and 468 IPC were set aside. The report shows no paragraph numbers. Sections 2(7) and 2(9) BNS carry the same concepts, recast as "means doing anything with the intention …", so the reasoning remains relevant on a reading of the text.

Manish Trivedi v. State of Rajasthan, [2013] 12 S.C.R. 205 (2013 INSC 728) — 29 October 2013. Chandramauli Kr. Prasad and Jagdish Singh Khehar JJ. held that Section 87 of the Rajasthan Municipalities Act, 1959, which deems every member of a Municipal Board a public servant "within the meaning of Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code", creates a legal fiction that makes an elected councillor a public servant under Section 21 IPC (paras 15, 17). The Court went on to decide the case under Section 2(c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, holding that decisions on Section 21 IPC have no bearing on that different definition (para 22), and dismissed the councillor's appeal (para 24). The first holding illustrates the borrowed-definition references discussed under Section 8(1) of the General Clauses Act above.

M/s Himadri Steel Pvt. Ltd. v. Jharkhand Urja Vikas Nigam Limited & Ors. (2026 INSC 712) — 12 August 2026. Aravind Kumar and Vipul M. Pancholi JJ. held that Section 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003 (theft of electricity) requires mens rea because it opens "whoever dishonestly", and read "dishonestly" by reference to "S. 24 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 as well as S.2(7) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023" (para 25). Finding that the inspection report disclosed no evidence of theft (paras 32 to 35), the Court set aside the Division Bench order and restored the Single Judge's order quashing the provisional assessment (para 38).

Which law applies to your case

Section 358(2) BNS keeps alive any penalty or punishment incurred under the IPC and allows proceedings to be instituted, continued or enforced "as if that Code had not been repealed". On a reading of that provision, an offence committed before 1 July 2024 is charged under the IPC and read with the IPC definitions. See which law applies to an offence before 1 July 2024.

Frequently asked questions

Where are the IPC definitions in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita? The definitions in Sections 8 to 52A IPC are now among clauses (1) to (38) of Section 2 BNS, which run from (1) 'act' to (38) 'gaining wrongfully' and 'losing wrongfully'; clauses (3) 'child' and (39) are new. The rules of construction and joint liability in Sections 6, 7, 27 and 32 to 38 IPC are sub-sections (1) to (9) of Section 3 BNS.

Does the BNS definition of 'gender' include transgender persons? Yes. Section 2(10) BNS says the pronoun 'he' and its derivatives are used of any person, 'whether male, female or transgender', and adopts the meaning of 'transgender' in Section 2(k) of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. Section 8 IPC said only 'whether male or female'.

Does 'document' in the BNS include electronic records? Yes. Section 2(8) BNS adds the words 'and includes electronic and digital record' to the definition of 'document'. Under the IPC, Section 29 had no such words; 'electronic record' was defined separately in Section 29A by reference to the Information Technology Act, 2000.

What is the difference between 'dishonestly' and 'fraudulently' under the BNS? Section 2(7) BNS defines 'dishonestly' as doing anything with the intention of causing wrongful gain to one person or wrongful loss to another; Section 2(9) defines 'fraudulently' as doing anything with the intention to defraud. In Dr. Vimla v. Delhi Administration, construing the same concepts in Sections 24 and 25 IPC, the Supreme Court held that deceit is not an ingredient of 'dishonestly' but is an important ingredient of 'fraudulently'.

Who is a public servant under the BNS? Section 2(28) BNS lists eleven descriptions, clauses (a) to (k), replacing clauses Second to Twelfth of Section 21 IPC — from commissioned officers and Judges to every person in the service or pay of the Government, a local authority, a statutory corporation or a Government company. Under the Explanation, appointment by the Government is not required.

Is 'child' defined in the BNS? Yes. Section 2(3) BNS, a new clause, defines 'child' as any person below the age of eighteen years. The IPC had no general definition of 'child'.

Which IPC definitions were not carried into the BNS? Section 2 BNS has no counterpart to Section 14 IPC ('servant of Government'), Section 18 IPC ('India') or Section 50 IPC ('section'). Sections 13, 15 and 16 IPC had already been omitted or repealed before 2023. Persons in the service or pay of the Government are public servants under Section 2(28)(k)(i) BNS.

Related

• IPC to BNS master comparison table
• Section 34 IPC vs Section 3(5) BNS — Common Intention
• Sections 1–5 IPC vs Section 1 BNS — Title, Extent and Territorial Application
• Forgery: IPC 463-474 vs BNS 335-341
• Theft: IPC 378-382 vs BNS 303-307
• Section 53 IPC vs Section 4 BNS — Punishments

Sources

• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Gazette text): Sections 2, 3, 158, 164, 189(7) and 358.
• Indian Penal Code, 1860 (India Code text): Sections 6 to 52A with amendment footnotes and the Rajasthan State amendment to Section 21; Sections 130 and 157.
• General Clauses Act, 1897: Section 8(1).
• Judgments read in full text: Dr. Vimla v. Delhi Administration (S_1963_2_585_600_EN.md); Manish Trivedi v. State of Rajasthan (2013_12_205_222_EN.md); M/s Himadri Steel Pvt. Ltd. v. Jharkhand Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (Diary_60607-2025_Judgment.md).

This page explains the statutory text and the judgments cited as they stand. It is not legal advice; for a specific case, consult an advocate.