● Modified in BNS
Harbouring or concealing a known offender to screen them from punishment carries a punishment scaled to the underlying offence -- up to 5 years for harbouring in a capital case -- essentially unchanged under BNS Section 249 from IPC 212, with the spousal exception now worded gender-neutrally.
Section 212 IPC punished harbouring or concealing a person known or believed to be an offender, intending to screen them from legal punishment, on a three-tier sliding scale matching the underlying offence: up to 5 years and fine for a capital offence; up to 3 years and fine for a life/10-year offence; and, for lesser offences, up to one-fourth the offence's longest term, or fine, or both. An Exception excluded harbouring by the offender's husband or wife.
BNS Section 249 reproduces the offence and all three punishment tiers unchanged, along with the extraterritorial-offence Explanation (its cross-referenced section list updated to the new BNS numbers). The one wording change: the Exception's "husband or wife" becomes the gender-neutral "spouse," with the same legal effect.
Unchanged in substance apart from the "husband or wife" to "spouse" gender-neutral wording update, and renumbering the cross-referenced offence list to match new BNS section numbers.
Capital offence harboured: imprisonment up to 5 years, and fine. Life/10-year offence harboured: imprisonment up to 3 years, and fine. Lesser offence harboured: imprisonment of the offence's own description, up to one-fourth its longest term, or fine, or both..
IPC 212 is bailable..
This is a cognizable. offence.
Non-compoundable..
Matters under IPC 212 are tried before the Magistrate of the First Class..
Common defences include the accused being the offender's spouse (a statutory exception), lack of knowledge or reason to believe the person harboured was an offender, and absence of intent to screen them from punishment.
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