● Modified in BNS
Section 21 lists who counts as a "public servant" for the Code -- judges, court officers, armed forces officers, government employees and more. BNS moves this definition into the general Definitions section as clause 2(28), unchanged in substance, with the Companies Act cross-reference modernised from the repealed 1956 Act to the 2013 Act.
Section 21 IPC listed twelve categories of person counting as a "public servant": commissioned armed-forces officers, judges, court officers, jurors/assessors/panchayat members, court-appointed arbitrators, persons empowered to confine others, officers preventing/investigating offences or protecting public health/safety, revenue officers, local-body officers, election officials, and anyone in the service or pay of Government, a local authority, a statutory corporation, or a government company.
BNS Section 2(28) reproduces the same categories, relettered (a) through (k), folding the former Explanations into one with sub-clauses. The Companies Act cross-reference updates from "section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956" to "clause (45) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013," and a new cross-reference to the General Clauses Act, 1897 defines "local authority." The armed-forces clause wording shifts slightly from "Military, Naval or Air Forces of India" to "Army, Navy or Air Force."
Structurally, a standalone IPC section becomes one clause within the BNS's general Definitions section. Substantively, the twelve categories carry over with the same practical coverage, modernised statutory cross-references, and minor wording updates to the armed-forces clause.
This is a definitional provision, not an offence; whether a particular person qualifies as a "public servant" is a threshold question that feeds into offences against or by public servants defined elsewhere in the Code.
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