IPC · Chapter XII · Of offences relating to coin and Government stamps

IPC section 241 in the BNS

IPC 241BNS 179

IPC section 241, “Delivery of coin as genuine, which, when first possessed, the deliverer did not know to be counterfeit”, is now BNS section 179 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From IPC 241 to BNS 179

No separate offence in the BNS. Passing on a coin as genuine is covered by BNS section 179, which punishes anyone who uses as genuine a coin they know or have reason to believe is counterfeit, with imprisonment for life or up to ten years and fine. The IPC’s lighter punishment (up to two years, or a fine of up to ten times the coin’s value) for someone who learned the coin was counterfeit only after receiving it has no counterpart.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 241 Delivery of coin as genuine, which, when first possessed, the deliverer did not know to be counterfeit

Whoever delivers to any other person as genuine, or attempts to induce any other person to receive as genuine, any counterfeit coin which he knows to be counterfeit, but which he did not know to be counterfeit at the time when he took it into his possession, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine to an amount which may extend to ten times the value of the coin counterfeited, or with both.

A, a coiner, delivers counterfeit Company's rupees to his accomplice B, for the purpose of uttering them. B sells the rupees to C, another utterer, who buys them knowing them to be counterfeit. C pays away the rupees for goods to D, who receives them, not knowing them to be counterfeit. D, after receiving the rupees, discovers that they are counterfeit and pays them away as if they were good. Here D is punishable only under this section, but B and C are punishable under section 239 or 240, as the case may be.

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Section 179 Using as genuine, forged or counterfeit coin, Government stamp, currency-notes or bank- notes

Whoever imports or exports, or sells or delivers to, or buys or receives from, any other person, or otherwise traffics or uses as genuine, any forged or counterfeit coin, stamp, currency-note or bank-note, knowing or having reason to believe the same to be forged or counterfeit, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

The texts are India Code’s. The amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown. The PDFs linked below carry the full history.

Also in BNS 179

Other IPC sections that went to the same place

Old law or new?

Which one applies to a case

The BNS repealed the IPC from 1 July 2024 (section 358(1)). The repeal does not reach back: under section 358(2), penalties and punishments incurred for offences committed against the IPC still stand, and proceedings for them may be started, continued and enforced as if the IPC had not been repealed. An act done before 1 July 2024 is therefore dealt with under the IPC section; an act done on or after that date, under the BNS.