● Retained in BNS
Causing evidence of an offence to disappear, or giving false information, to screen the offender carries a punishment scaled to the underlying offence -- up to 7 years for screening a capital offence -- unchanged under BNS Section 238 from IPC 201.
Section 201 IPC punished causing evidence of a known or suspected offence to disappear, or giving information about it known or believed to be false, with intent to screen the offender, on a sliding scale tied to the underlying offence: up to 7 years and fine if the underlying offence is punishable by death; up to 3 years and fine if punishable by life imprisonment or up to 10 years; and, for lesser offences, imprisonment of the same kind as the underlying offence up to one-fourth its longest term, or fine, or both.
BNS Section 238 reproduces the offence and all three punishment tiers unchanged, restructured into clauses (a)/(b)/(c), with the same illustration and the same "one-fourth of the longest term" mechanism for the third tier. No fine caps were added.
Unchanged in substance -- pure renumbering and reformatting into lettered clauses, with an identical punishment structure.
Capital offence screened: imprisonment up to 7 years, and fine. Life/10-year offence screened: imprisonment up to 3 years, and fine. Lesser offence screened: imprisonment of the underlying offence's own description, up to one-fourth its longest term, or fine, or both..
IPC 201 is bailable..
This is a follows the underlying offence for the capital-offence tier; non-cognizable for the other two tiers. offence.
Non-compoundable..
Matters under IPC 201 are tried before the Court of Session for the capital-offence tier; Magistrate of the First Class for the life/10-year tier; the court by which the underlying offence is triable for the lesser-offence tier..
Common defences include lack of knowledge or reason to believe an offence had been committed, absence of intent to screen the offender, and the information given being genuinely believed true rather than known false.
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