IPC · Chapter XIV · Of offences affecting the public health, safety, convenience, decency and morals

IPC section 271 in the BNS

IPC 271BNS 273

IPC section 271, “Disobedience to quarantine rule”, is now BNS section 273 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From IPC 271 to BNS 273

Now BNS section 273. A quarantine rule may concern any “mode of transport” and its traffic with places (IPC: vessels and their intercourse with the shore or other vessels). Same punishment.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 271 Disobedience to quarantine rule

Whoever knowingly disobeys any rule made and promulgated by the Government for putting any vessel into a state of quarantine, or for regulating the intercourse of vessels in a state of quarantine with the shore or with other vessels, for regulating the intercourse between places where an infectious disease prevails and other places, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Section 273 Disobedience to quarantine rule

Whoever knowingly disobeys any rule made by the Government for putting any mode of transport into a state of quarantine, or for regulating the intercourse of any such transport in a state of quarantine or for regulating the intercourse between places where an infectious disease prevails and other places, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.

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amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown.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.

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The BNS repealed the IPC from 1 July 2024 (section 358(1)).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against the IPC still stand, and proceedings for them may be started, continued and enforced as if the IPC had not been repealed.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.