Section 181 punishes making or mending, or performing any part of the process of making or mending, or buying, selling, disposing of, or possessing, any machinery, die, instrument, or material for the purpose of being used, or knowing or having reason to believe it is intended to be used, for forging or counterfeiting any coin, Government revenue stamp, currency-note, or bank-note, with imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description up to ten years, and fine.
Verified against the National Crime Records Bureau's official BNS–IPC concordance (Sankalan Portal), which maps Section 181 to a cluster of old IPC provisions, and cross-checked directly against the bare text of the confirmed core provision.
| BNS section | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 181 | 233, 234, 235, 256, 257, 489D | Merged |
Merged: The old IPC split "tooling up" for counterfeiting across several separate sections — old Section 233 (making or selling an instrument for counterfeiting coin, up to three years), old Section 234 (the parallel offence specifically for Indian coin), old Section 235 (possession of an instrument or material for counterfeiting coin), old Section 256 (possession of an instrument or material for counterfeiting a Government stamp), old Section 257 (making or selling an instrument for counterfeiting a Government stamp), and old Section 489D (making or possessing instruments or materials for forging or counterfeiting currency-notes or bank-notes). Section 181 consolidates the making, mending, buying, selling, disposing of, and possessing of such machinery, dies, instruments, or materials — across coin, Government stamps, and currency-notes/bank-notes alike — into a single provision carrying the same high punishment ceiling as Sections 178 and 179, rather than old Section 233's separate three-year cap for coin-related tooling alone.
Whoever makes or mends, or performs any part of the process of making or mending, or buys or sells or disposes of, or has in his possession, any machinery, die, or instrument or material for the purpose of being used, or knowing or having reason to believe that it is intended to be used, for forging or counterfeiting any coin, stamp issued by Government for the purpose of revenue, currency-note or bank-note, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 45 of 2023), as published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.
This section reaches back one further step from Sections 178–180: it punishes preparing or holding the tools of the trade — machinery, dies, instruments, or materials — for counterfeiting, even before any actual counterfeit coin, stamp, or note has been produced. As with Section 178, merely performing "any part of the process" of making or mending such equipment is enough, and possession alone suffices where the person knows or has reason to believe it is intended for this purpose.
No. This section punishes making, mending, buying, selling, disposing of, or possessing the machinery, dies, instruments, or materials meant for counterfeiting, independent of whether any counterfeit item has yet been produced.
All of them. It covers machinery, dies, instruments, or materials intended for forging or counterfeiting coin, Government revenue stamps, currency-notes, or bank-notes alike.
Imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description up to ten years, along with fine.