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Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Section 120, BNS: Voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt to extort confession, or to compel restoration of property

Pundora · Published 3 October 2026

Section 120 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, in the Act's own words, with the IPC provision it replaces.

What it replaces

BNS provisionIPC provisionRelation
Section 120(1)Section 330corresponds
Section 120(2)Section 331corresponds

From the Bureau of Police Research and Development's official comparison summary (source below). The whole table: IPC to BNS.

The section

120. Voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt to extort confession, or to compel restoration of property.

(1) Whoever voluntarily causes hurt for the purpose of extorting from the sufferer or from any person interested in the sufferer, any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence or misconduct, or for the purpose of constraining the sufferer or any person interested in the sufferer to restore or to cause the restoration of any property or valuable security or to satisfy any claim or demand, or to give information which may lead to the restoration of any property or valuable security, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine. Illustrations. (a) A, a police officer, tortures Z in order to induce Z to confess that he committed a crime. A is guilty of an offence under this section. (b) A, a police officer, tortures B to induce him to point out where certain stolen property is deposited. A is guilty of an offence under this section. (c) A, a revenue officer, tortures Z in order to compel him to pay certain arrears of revenue due from Z. A is guilty of an offence under this section. (2) Whoever voluntarily causes grievous hurt for any purpose referred to in sub-section (1), shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

The text is India Code's consolidated text as loaded into Pundora's statute corpus on 1 September 2026. A section quoted in a draft checked by Pundora is checked against this text.

Sources

  1. India Code: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, section 120 (read 1 September 2026)
  2. Bureau of Police Research and Development: comparison summary, BNS to IPC (read 1 September 2026)

The Act's own words, from India Code. If the text here differs from the Gazette, the Gazette governs; write to contact@pundora.in and it will be corrected and dated.