The new bill will also provides maximum capital punishment for crimes such as mob lynching and rape of minors, the home minister said. The Bill also has provisions to provide community service as one of the punishments for first-time petty offences.

However, it deletes Section 124 A of the IPC, which deals with sedition, the BNS has Section 150 that lists new offences such as acts of secession, armed rebellion, subversive activities, separatist activities or endangering the sovereignty or unity and integrity of India. The sedition law, known as ‘Rajdroh’ has got a new term for it, ‘Deshdroh’, thus doing away with the reference to the British crown, officials said. Section 124 in the BNS relates to the crime of wrongful restraint.

As per the IPC Section 124A. "Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards...the Government established by law...shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine."

In the proposed BNS, 2023: Section 124 in the proposed law relates to the offence of wrongful restraint. The word sedition does not exist in the proposed law. Offences of the nature described as "sedition" in the IPC are covered in Section 150 of the proposed Sanhita, as "Acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India".

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 will have 356 sections, instead of the 511 the IPC had, with 175 of them amended. Eight new sections have been added and 22 have been repealed, the government said.

Source: BusinessStandard and TimesNow