● Retained in BNS
Dacoity -- robbery committed by five or more people acting together -- carries life imprisonment or up to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and fine under BNS Section 310(2), unchanged from IPC 395, with the entire dacoity cluster of offences now consolidated into one section.
Section 395 IPC punished dacoity (defined separately in Section 391 as robbery committed by five or more persons) with imprisonment for life, or rigorous imprisonment up to 10 years, and fine. Related offences -- dacoity with murder, preparation to commit dacoity, gang membership, and unlawful assembly for dacoity -- were scattered across separate sections (396, 399, 400-402).
BNS Section 310 consolidates the entire dacoity cluster into one six-sub-section provision: (1) the definition, (2) punishment for base dacoity -- the direct successor to IPC 395, reproduced unchanged -- (3) dacoity with murder, (4) preparation to commit dacoity, (5) assembly for the purpose of committing dacoity, and (6) belonging to a gang habitually committing dacoity (merging what were two separate IPC offences).
The base offence and its punishment are unchanged. The real change is structural: roughly six separate IPC sections covering the dacoity cluster are consolidated into one section with six sub-sections.
Imprisonment for life, or rigorous imprisonment up to 10 years, and fine..
IPC 395 is non-bailable..
This is a cognizable. offence.
Non-compoundable..
Matters under IPC 395 are tried before the Court of Session..
Common defences include absence of the five-or-more-person threshold required to constitute dacoity, lack of participation in or common intention with the group's act, and mistaken identity.
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