Section 238 punishes a person who, knowing or having reason to believe that an offence has been committed, causes evidence of it to disappear, or gives false information about it, with the intention of screening the offender from legal punishment. The punishment depends on the offence being screened: imprisonment of up to seven years and fine where it is punishable with death; up to three years and fine where it is punishable with imprisonment for life or up to ten years; and, where it carries a term of less than ten years, up to one-fourth of that offence’s longest term, or fine, or both.
Verified against the National Crime Records Bureau’s official BNS–IPC concordance (Sankalan Portal) and compared word by word with the bare text of both Acts. Section 238 is marked Exact correspondence — it descends from a single section of the old Indian Penal Code, 1860, carries the same offence and the same three punishment tiers, and the concordance shows no change tag against it:
| BNS 238 | Covers | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 238 | Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender | S.201 “Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender” | Exact |
A word-by-word comparison of IPC Section 201 with BNS Section 238 (run by program, and checked against the printed page of each Act) shows that the operative words, the mental element, the three punishments and the Illustration are the same, and that the differences are ones of layout and punctuation only. (1) The IPC runs the three tiers on as one sentence (“shall, if the offence … is punishable with death, be punished …; and if the offence is punishable with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment which may extend to ten years, shall be punished …; and if the offence is punishable with imprisonment for any term not extending to ten years, shall be punished …”). The BNS ends its opening sentence with “shall,—” and sets the tiers out as lettered clauses (a), (b) and (c), each beginning “if” and continuing “be punished”; so the word “and” before the second and third tiers, and the word “shall” before “be punished” in those two tiers, do not appear in the BNS. (2) The IPC has a comma after “to be false” before the first tier; the BNS has none, because the word “shall” follows directly. (3) The IPC prints three marginal headings against the tiers (“if a capital offence”; “if punishable with imprisonment for life”; “if punishable with less than ten years’ imprisonment”); the BNS does not carry them. (4) The IPC copy prints the words “imprisonment for life” inside a footnote marker; the footnote on that page records a substitution for “transportation for life” made by Act 26 of 1955. The BNS prints the words without any marker. (5) The BNS has a full stop after the heading “Illustration”, which the IPC copy does not. Because none of these changes an ingredient, exception or punishment, this page classes Section 238 as Exact.
Whoever, knowing or having reason to believe that an offence has been committed, causes any evidence of the commission of that offence to disappear, with the intention of screening the offender from legal punishment, or with that intention gives any information respecting the offence which he knows or believes to be false shall,—
(a) if the offence which he knows or believes to have been committed is punishable with death, be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine;
(b) if the offence is punishable with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment which may extend to ten years, be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to fine;
(c) if the offence is punishable with imprisonment for any term not extending to ten years, be punished with imprisonment of the description provided for the offence, for a term which may extend to one-fourth part of the longest term of the imprisonment provided for the offence, or with fine, or with both.
Illustration.
A, knowing that B has murdered Z, assists B to hide the body with the intention of screening B from punishment. A is liable to imprisonment of either description for seven years, and also to fine.
Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 45 of 2023), as published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.
Section 238 begins with words that apply to all three clauses and then grades the punishment by the seriousness of the offence being screened. Clause (a) is the first tier. Before any clause applies, two things must be present. First, the person must know or have reason to believe that an offence has been committed; Section 2(29) says a person has “reason to believe” a thing if he has sufficient cause to believe that thing but not otherwise. Second, the person must do one of two things: cause any evidence of the commission of that offence to disappear, with the intention of screening the offender from legal punishment; or, with that intention, give any information respecting the offence which he knows or believes to be false. The words “with that intention” carry the same intention into the false-information way, so both ways require an intention of screening the offender from legal punishment.
Clause (a) applies “if the offence which he knows or believes to have been committed is punishable with death”. The punishment is imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and the offender “shall also be liable to fine”. Under Section 4(c) imprisonment is of two descriptions, rigorous (with hard labour) and simple, so “either description” leaves open which of the two is imposed. The clause states no amount for the fine; Section 8(1) provides that where no sum is expressed to which a fine may extend, the amount of fine is unlimited, but shall not be excessive.
Some offences are punishable with death or, alternatively, with imprisonment for life; murder under Section 103(1) is an example. Such an offence answers to the words of clause (a) (“punishable with death”) and, read literally, also to part of clause (b) (“punishable with imprisonment for life”). The section’s own printed Illustration applies the seven-year tier, that is clause (a), to a person who assists in hiding the body of a murder victim, so this page reads clause (a) as the tier for an offence whose punishment includes death. That reading rests on the printed Illustration; the clauses themselves do not state a rule for the overlap. Clause (a) also ties the tier to the offence “which he knows or believes to have been committed”, whereas clauses (b) and (c) speak only of “the offence”; the text does not say whether that difference in phrasing matters, and this page does not state a rule about it.
The word “offence” has a defined reach here. Section 2(24)(b) names Section 238 among the sections in which the word “offence” has the meaning given in Section 2(24)(a), that is, a thing punishable under the Sanhita or under any special law or local law, when the act punishable under the special law or local law is punishable under such law with imprisonment for a term of six months or more, whether with or without fine. The Explanation printed under Section 240 adds that in Sections 238 and 239 and in Section 240 the word “offence” includes any act committed at any place out of India which, if committed in India, would be punishable under the sections that Explanation lists; the list appears with the text of Section 240.
In the BNSS First Schedule, clause (a) is listed as bailable and triable by the Court of Session, with cognizability stated as “according as the offence in relation to which disappearance of evidence is caused is cognizable or non-cognizable”. Because the offence is bailable, BNSS Section 478(1) applies: a person accused of a bailable offence who is prepared to give bail “shall be released on bail”. Section 238 appears in neither compounding table of BNSS Section 359.
Clause (b) is the second tier. It applies “if the offence is punishable with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment which may extend to ten years”. A person who does either of the two things in the opening words of the section (making evidence disappear, or giving false information, in each case with the intention of screening the offender from legal punishment) is punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, and “shall also be liable to fine”. The two limbs of the clause are alternatives joined by “or”: an offence punishable with imprisonment for life falls within it, and so does an offence whose imprisonment may extend to ten years. The BNSS First Schedule describes the clause as “If punishable with imprisonment for life or imprisonment for 10 years”.
The clause has to be read against its neighbours. Clause (a) speaks of an offence punishable with death, and this page applies clause (a), not clause (b), to an offence whose punishment includes death, for the reason given under clause (a). Clause (c) speaks of imprisonment for “any term not extending to ten years”, and the First Schedule describes it as “If punishable with less than 10 years’ imprisonment”. Read with that description, an offence whose longest term is exactly ten years falls in clause (b), and an offence whose longest term is below ten years falls in clause (c).
The false-information way of committing the offence overlaps in its words with Section 240 (Giving false information respecting an offence committed), which does not mention any intention of screening the offender. Where false information is given with that intention, the words of both sections may be engaged; the text of the two sections does not say how they are to be applied to the same facts, and this page does not state a rule on it.
Under the First Schedule, clause (b) is non-cognizable, bailable and triable by a Magistrate of the first class. In the Schedule “non-cognizable” stands for “a police officer shall not arrest without warrant”. BNSS Section 2(1)(o) defines a non-cognizable offence as one for which a police officer has no authority to arrest without warrant, and BNSS Section 174(2) provides that no police officer shall investigate a non-cognizable case without the order of a Magistrate having power to try such case or commit the case for trial. BNSS Section 174(4) adds that where a case relates to two or more offences of which at least one is cognizable, the case shall be deemed to be a cognizable case, notwithstanding that the other offences are non-cognizable; this page does not go into how that applies to a particular case. Because clause (b) is bailable, BNSS Section 478(1) applies. It is not compoundable: Section 238 is in neither table of BNSS Section 359.
Clause (c) is the third tier and the only one whose punishment is measured by the offence itself. It applies “if the offence is punishable with imprisonment for any term not extending to ten years”. The person is then punished “with imprisonment of the description provided for the offence, for a term which may extend to one-fourth part of the longest term of the imprisonment provided for the offence, or with fine, or with both”.
Three features follow from those words. First, the description of imprisonment (rigorous or simple, Section 4(c)) is the one “provided for the offence”; if the offence provides for imprisonment of either description, so does the clause. Second, the ceiling is one-fourth of the longest term the offence provides. If the offence being screened is punishable with imprisonment for up to one year, for example, one-fourth of that is three months. Third, the punishment is expressed in the alternative: imprisonment, or fine, or both. This differs from clauses (a) and (b), which say the offender “shall also be liable to fine”, because clause (c) allows fine in place of imprisonment. The clause states no amount for the fine; Section 8(1) provides that where no sum is expressed the amount of fine is unlimited, but shall not be excessive.
The three clauses speak of offences punishable with death, with imprisonment for life or up to ten years, and with imprisonment for a term not extending to ten years. The text does not provide a tier for an offence punishable with fine alone, and this page does not state a rule for that case. For an act that is punishable only under a special law or local law, Section 2(24)(b) brings it within the word “offence” in Section 238 when that law punishes it with imprisonment for a term of six months or more, whether with or without fine.
In the BNSS First Schedule, clause (c) is non-cognizable, bailable, and triable by “the Court by which the offence is triable”. BNSS Sections 2(1)(o) and 174(2) apply to a non-cognizable case in the terms set out under clause (b). Because the clause is bailable, BNSS Section 478(1) applies: a person accused of a bailable offence who is prepared to give bail “shall be released on bail”. The clause is not compoundable, since Section 238 is in neither table of BNSS Section 359.
No. The section has three tiers, and which one applies depends on how the offence being screened is punishable. If that offence is punishable with death, the punishment is imprisonment of either description for up to seven years, and liability to fine. If it is punishable with imprisonment for life or up to ten years, it is up to three years, and liability to fine. If it is punishable with imprisonment for a term not extending to ten years, it is up to one-fourth of that offence’s longest term, or fine, or both.
The section punishes causing evidence to disappear, or giving false information, “with the intention of screening the offender from legal punishment”. Those words speak of the intention with which the act is done; they do not, in terms, say that the offender must in fact have escaped punishment. This page does not state a rule beyond the words of the section.
Clauses (b) and (c) are listed in the BNSS First Schedule as non-cognizable, so BNSS Section 2(1)(o) (no authority to arrest without warrant) and Section 174(2) (no investigation without the order of a Magistrate having power to try the case or commit it for trial) apply. Clause (a) is listed as cognizable or non-cognizable according as the offence in relation to which disappearance of evidence is caused is cognizable or non-cognizable. All three clauses are listed as bailable, so BNSS Section 478(1) applies: a person accused of a bailable offence who is prepared to give bail “shall be released on bail”.
The Explanation printed under Section 240 says that in Sections 238 and 239 and in Section 240 the word “offence” includes any act committed at any place out of India which, if committed in India, would be punishable under any of the sections it lists. Whether a particular act abroad falls within that list depends on the list, which appears with the text of Section 240.
Section 240 punishes giving information respecting an offence which the person knows or believes to be false; it does not mention an intention of screening the offender and has a single punishment. Section 238 requires that intention, also covers causing evidence to disappear, and grades the punishment in three tiers by the seriousness of the offence being screened.