Section 212 punishes whoever, being legally bound to furnish information to a public servant, furnishes as true, information they know or have reason to believe is false: with simple imprisonment of up to six months, or fine of up to five thousand rupees, or both, under clause (a); and, where the information concerns the commission of an offence, prevention of an offence, or apprehension of an offender, with imprisonment of either description for up to two years, or fine, or both, under clause (b).
Verified against the National Crime Records Bureau's official BNS–IPC concordance (Sankalan Portal), which itself flags this mapping as a "Change," and independently against the text of Section 177 itself as found in the edition of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 consulted for this book.
| BNS section | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 212 | 177 | Substantively changed |
Substantively changed: old IPC Section 177 expressed the same two-tier conduct and punishment structure as a single continuous sentence rather than as separate lettered clauses. Section 212 restructures this into clauses (a) and (b). The fine cap under clause (a) has been raised from one thousand rupees to five thousand rupees; clause (b)'s uncapped "or with fine" is unchanged. The section's own statutory Illustration (b) has been modernized: the old law's reference to being bound "under clause 5, section VII, Regulation III, 1821, of the Bengal Code" is replaced with the generic "being legally bound," without altering the illustration's substance. The closing statutory Explanation, which extends the definitions of "offence" and "offender" for both Sections 211 and 212 to acts committed outside India, has had its list of qualifying offence-section numbers renumbered to correspond to the equivalent offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (for example, murder and culpable homicide, robbery and dacoity, and the housebreaking/lurking house-trespass offences), in place of the old IPC's corresponding section numbers. The underlying conduct and the imprisonment caps (six months and two years respectively) are unchanged.
Whoever, being legally bound to furnish information on any subject to any public servant, as such, furnishes, as true, information on the subject which he knows or has reason to believe to be false,—
(a) shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with both;
(b) where the information which he is legally bound to give respects the commission of an offence, or is required for the purpose of preventing the commission of an offence, or in order to the apprehension of an offender, with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
Illustrations.
(a) A, a landholder, knowing of the commission of a murder within the limits of his estate, wilfully misinforms the Magistrate of the district that the death has occurred by accident in consequence of the bite of a snake. A is guilty of the offence defined in this section.
(b) A, a village watchman, knowing that a considerable body of strangers has passed through his village in order to commit a dacoity in the house of Z, a wealthy merchant residing in a neighbouring place, and being legally bound to give early and punctual information of the above fact to the officer of the nearest police station, wilfully misinforms the police officer that a body of suspicious characters passed through the village with a view to commit dacoity in a certain distant place in a different direction. Here A is guilty of the offence defined in this section.
Explanation.—In section 211 and in this section the word “offence” include any act committed at any place out of India, which, if committed in India, would be punishable under any of the following sections, namely, 103, 105, 307, sub-sections (2), (3) and (4) of section 309, sub-sections (2), (3), (4) and (5) of section 310, 311, 312, clauses (f) and (g) of section 326, sub-sections (4), (6), (7) and (8) of section 331, clauses (a) and (b) of section 332 and the word “offender” includes any person who is alleged to have been guilty of any such act.
Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 45 of 2023), as published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.
A person legally bound to furnish information to a public servant, who furnishes information as true while knowing or having reason to believe it is false, falls within this base clause.
Where the false information given concerns the commission of an offence, is required to prevent the commission of an offence, or is required for the apprehension of an offender, the heavier punishment under this clause applies instead. The section's own statutory Illustrations, quoted in the Statutory Text block above, both concern this scenario.
Section 211 punishes omitting to give required information at all. Section 212 punishes actively furnishing information that is known or believed to be false, as if it were true.
Clause (a): simple imprisonment up to six months, or fine up to five thousand rupees, or both. Clause (b): imprisonment of either description up to two years, or fine, or both.
The fine cap under clause (a) has been raised, the provision has been restructured into lettered clauses, an obsolete colonial-era cross-reference in the second Illustration has been modernized, and the offence-section numbers listed in the closing Explanation have been updated to the corresponding Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 numbering.