IPC · Chapter III · Of punishments

IPC section 73 in the BNS

IPC 73BNS 11

IPC section 73, “Solitary confinement”, is now BNS section 11 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From IPC 73 to BNS 11

Now BNS section 11, with the same scale of solitary confinement (“that is to say” becomes “namely”).

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 73 Solitary confinement

Whenever any person is convicted of an offence for which under this Code the Court has power to sentence him to rigorous imprisonment, the Court may, by its sentence, order that the offender shall be kept in solitary confinement for any portion or portions of the imprisonment to which he is sentenced, not exceeding three months in the whole, according to the following scale, that is to say—

a time not exceeding one month if the term of imprisonment shall not exceed six months;

a time not exceeding two months if the term of imprisonment shall exceed six months andshall not exceed one year a time not exceeding three months if the term of imprisonment shall exceed one year.

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Section 11 Solitary confinement

Whenever any person is convicted of an offence for which under this Sanhita the Court has power to sentence him to rigorous imprisonment, the Court may, by its sentence, order that the offender shall be kept in solitary confinement for any portion or portions of the imprisonment to which he is sentenced, not exceeding three months in the whole, according to the following scale, namely: —

(a) a time not exceeding one month if the term of imprisonment shall not exceed six months;

(b) a time not exceeding two months if the term of imprisonment shall exceed six months and shall not exceed one year;

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amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown.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The BNS repealed the IPC from 1 July 2024 (section 358(1)).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against the IPC still stand, and proceedings for them may be started, continued and enforced as if the IPC had not been repealed.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.