Section 201 punishes a public servant who, being charged with preparing or translating a document or electronic record, frames, prepares, or translates it in a manner they know or believe to be incorrect, intending thereby to cause injury to any person, or knowing it is likely to cause such injury, with imprisonment of either description up to three years, or fine, or both.
Verified against the National Crime Records Bureau's official BNS–IPC concordance (Sankalan Portal), which maps Section 201 to old IPC Section 167, and independently against the text of Section 167 itself as found in the edition of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 consulted for this book.
| BNS section | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 201 | 167 | Substantively changed |
Substantively changed: old IPC Section 167 covered only a public servant charged with the preparation or translation of a "document," and the punishable acts were limited to "frames or translates." Section 201 extends this in two respects: it adds "electronic record" alongside "document" as a covered subject-matter, and it adds "prepares" as an additional punishable act alongside "frames" and "translates." The remainder of the provision — the mental element (knowing or believing the document or record to be incorrect, with intent or knowledge of likely injury) and the punishment (imprisonment up to three years, or fine, or both) — is unchanged.
Whoever, being a public servant, and being, as such public servant, charged with the preparation or translation of any document or electronic record, frames, prepares or translates that document or electronic record in a manner which he knows or believes to be incorrect, intending thereby to cause or knowing it to be likely that he may thereby cause injury to any person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.
Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 45 of 2023), as published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.
A public servant who is charged, in that capacity, with preparing or translating any document or electronic record, and who frames, prepares, or translates it in a manner they know or believe to be incorrect, commits this offence — provided they either intend thereby to cause injury to any person, or know it is likely that such injury may result.
Both. Section 201 explicitly covers "any document or electronic record," extending the old law's coverage (which was limited to "document") to electronic records as well.
Imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or fine, or both.
Section 201 adds "electronic record" as a covered subject-matter alongside "document," and adds "prepares" as an additional punishable act alongside "frames" and "translates." The rest of the provision is unchanged.