IPC · Chapter XVIII · Of offences relating to documents and to property marks

IPC section 489E in the BNS

IPC 489EBNS 182

IPC section 489E, “Making or using documents resembling currency-notes or bank-notes”, is now BNS section 182 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From IPC 489E to BNS 182

Now BNS section 182. The maximum fines rise from ₹100 to ₹300 for making or using a document resembling a currency-note, and from ₹200 to ₹600 for refusing to disclose who printed it.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 489E Making or using documents resembling currency-notes or bank-notes

(1) Whoever makes, or causes to be made, or uses for any purpose whatsoever, or delivers to any person, any document purporting to be, or in any way resembling, or so nearly resembling as to be calculated to deceive, any currency-note or bank-note shall be punished with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees.

(2) If any person, whose name appears on a document the making of which is an offence under sub-section (1), refuses, without lawful excuse, to disclose to a police-officer on being so required the name and address of the person by whom it was printed or otherwise made, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees.

(3) Where the name of any person appears on any document in respect of which any person is charged with an offence under sub- section (1) or on any other document used or distributed in connection with that document it may, until the contrary is proved, be presumed that that person caused the document to be made.

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Section 182 Making or using documents resembling currency-notes or bank-notes

(2) If any person, whose name appears on a document the making of which is an offence under sub-section (1), refuses, without lawful excuse, to disclose to a police officer on being so required the name and address of the person by whom it was printed or otherwise made, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to six hundred rupees.

(3) Where the name of any person appears on any document in respect of which any person is charged with an offence under sub-section (1) or on any other document used or distributed in connection with that document it may, until the contrary is proved, be presumed that the person caused the document to be made.

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.