IPC · Chapter XVI · Of offences affecting the human body
IPC section 377, “Unnatural offences”, was not carried into the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which replaced the IPC on 1 July 2024.
Not carried into the BNS, which has no offence corresponding to section 377. In Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018) the Supreme Court had already read section 377 down so that it no longer applied to consensual sexual acts between adults.
Indian Penal Code, 1860
Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, 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.
Explanation.—Penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offence described in this section.
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amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown.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.
The BNS repealed the IPC from 1 July 2024 (section 358(1)).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against the IPC still stand, and proceedings for them may be started, continued and enforced as if the IPC had not been repealed.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.
