● New in BNS
BNS Section 103(2) is India first dedicated anti-lynching provision, created in response to the Supreme Court call in Tehseen Poonawalla v. Union of India (2018) for specific legislation. It punishes murder committed by a group of five or more persons acting together on grounds such as race, caste, community, sex, place of birth, language or personal belief.
The IPC had no separate provision for lynching; mob killings were prosecuted as murder under IPC 302 read with common-intention/unlawful-assembly provisions.
BNS Section 103(2) specifically punishes murder committed by a group of five or more persons acting in concert on grounds of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief or any other similar ground: each member is punished with death or imprisonment for life, and fine.
Entirely new provision responding to the Supreme Court's call in Tehseen Poonawalla (2018) for specific anti-lynching law.
Death or imprisonment for life, and fine -- for every member of the group, not only whoever struck the fatal blow..
BNS 103(2) is non-bailable..
This is a cognizable. offence.
Non-compoundable..
Matters under BNS 103(2) are tried before the Court of Session..
Common defences include disputing membership of the group or presence at the scene, absence of the specific discriminatory motive the section requires (which would leave ordinary murder or group-liability provisions in play instead), and that the killing was not the act of a group acting in concert.
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