● Modified in BNS
Disobeying a lawfully promulgated public-order or prohibitory order carries up to 6 months' imprisonment, rising to up to 1 year if it endangers life, health or safety or causes a riot, under BNS Section 223 -- double the old IPC 188's 6-month ceiling on the aggravated tier.
Section 188 IPC punished knowingly disobeying a lawfully promulgated order to abstain from an act or manage property in a certain way: simple imprisonment up to 1 month, or fine up to Rs 200, or both, if it caused or tended to cause obstruction or annoyance; rising to imprisonment up to 6 months, or fine up to Rs 1,000, or both, if it caused or tended to cause danger to life, health or safety, or a riot.
BNS Section 223 reproduces the offence, Explanation and illustration unchanged in substance, restructured into clauses (a)/(b). Fine ceilings rise -- Rs 200 to Rs 2,500, and Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 -- and, more consequentially, the maximum imprisonment for the aggravated (danger-to-life or riot) tier doubles from 6 months to 1 year.
Fine ceilings increased on both tiers. More significantly, the maximum imprisonment for the aggravated tier -- the provision underpinning modern prohibitory/curfew-order violations -- doubles from 6 months under the IPC to 1 year under the BNS.
Simple imprisonment up to 6 months, or fine up to Rs 2,500, or both; up to 1 year, or fine up to Rs 5,000, or both, if the disobedience causes or tends to cause danger to life, health or safety, or a riot or affray..
IPC 188 is bailable..
This is a cognizable. offence.
Non-compoundable..
Matters under IPC 188 are tried before the Any Magistrate..
Common defences include lack of knowledge that the order had been promulgated, the order not being one a competent public servant was lawfully empowered to issue, and absence of any resulting or likely obstruction, danger or riot.
Summaries are for general information and are not legal advice. For the authoritative bare-act text, see the official Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and Indian Penal Code, 1860 (full amended text, as it stood before repeal) on India Code, or the Ministry of Home Affairs' new criminal laws page. ← All comparisons