IPC · Chapter III · Of punishments
IPC section 55, “Commutation of sentence of imprisonment for life”, is now BNS section 5 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.
Merged into BNS section 5 with IPC 54 and 55A. The IPC allowed a life sentence to be commuted to imprisonment of up to fourteen years; the BNS lets the appropriate Government commute any punishment to any other in accordance with section 474 of the BNSS, which sets the limits.
Indian Penal Code, 1860
In every case in which sentence of imprisonment for life shall have been passed, the appropriate Government may, without the consent of the offender, commute the punishment for imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding fourteen years.
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
The appropriate Government may, without the consent of the offender, commute any punishment under this Sanhita to any other punishment in accordance with section 474 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.
Explanation.—For the purposes of this section the expression “appropriate Government” means, —
(a) in cases where the sentence is a sentence of death or is for an offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the Union extends, the Central Government; and
(b) in cases where the sentence (whether of death or not) is for an offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the State extends, the Government of the State within which the offender is sentenced.
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amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown.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The BNS repealed the IPC from 1 July 2024 (section 358(1)).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against the IPC still stand, and proceedings for them may be started, continued and enforced as if the IPC had not been repealed.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.
