● Retained in BNS
Criminal breach of trust by a public servant, banker, merchant, or agent -- the most serious category of this offence -- carries imprisonment for life, or up to 10 years plus fine, under BNS Section 316(5), unchanged from IPC 409. Unlike some of its less severe sibling clauses in the same section, it remains non-compoundable.
Section 409 IPC punished the most serious category of criminal breach of trust: committed by someone entrusted with property, or with dominion over property, in their capacity as a public servant, or in the way of their business as a banker, merchant, factor, broker, attorney, or agent. It carried imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description up to 10 years, and fine -- the harshest of the breach-of-trust tier. This is the provision most commonly cited in embezzlement cases involving bank employees, company agents, brokers, and government officials.
BNS Section 316(5) reproduces the offence verbatim, word for word, with no substantive change of any kind, including the identical life-or-10-years-plus-fine punishment ceiling.
Nothing changed. A pure renumbering (409 to 316(5)) with textually and punishment-wise identical wording.
Imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years, and fine..
IPC 409 is non-bailable..
This is a cognizable. offence.
Non-compoundable..
Matters under IPC 409 are tried before the Magistrate of the First Class..
Common defences include absence of entrustment in the specific public-servant/banker/agent capacity the section requires, a genuine account or civil dispute rather than dishonest misappropriation, or that the property was used with the owner's consent or authority.
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