The law › BNSS

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 215, BNSS: . Prosecution for contempt of lawful authority of public servants, for offences against public justice and for offences relating to documents given in evidence

Pundora · Published 3 October 2026

Section 215 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in the Act's own words, with the CrPC provision it replaces.

What it replaces

BNSS provisionCrPC provisionRelation
Section 215Section 195corresponds

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

The section

215. . Prosecution for contempt of lawful authority of public servants, for offences against public justice and for offences relating to documents given in evidence.

(1) No Court shall take cognizance— (a) (i) of any offence punishable under sections 206 to 223 (both inclusive but excluding section 209) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023; or (ii) of any abetment of, or attempt to commit, such offence; or (iii) of any criminal conspiracy to commit such offence, except on the complaint in writing of the public servant concerned or of some other public servant to whom he is administratively subordinate or of some other public servant who is authorised by the concerned public servant so to do; (b) (i) of any offence punishable under any of the following sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, namely, sections 229 to 233 (both inclusive), 236, 237, 242 to 248 (both inclusive) and 267, when such offence is alleged to have been committed in, or in relation to, any proceeding in any Court; or (ii) of any offence described in sub-section (1) of section 336, or punishable under sub-section (2) of section 340 or section 342 of the said Sanhita, when such offence is alleged to have been committed in respect of a document produced or given in evidence in a proceeding in any Court; or (iii) of any criminal conspiracy to commit, or attempt to commit, or the abetment of, any offence specified in sub-clause (i) or sub-clause (ii), except on the complaint in writing of that Court or by such officer of the Court as that Court may authorise in writing in this behalf, or of some other Court to which that Court is subordinate.

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 Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, section 215 (read 1 September 2026)
  2. Bureau of Police Research and Development: comparison summary, BNSS to CrPC (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.