Section 263 punishes a person who intentionally resists, or illegally obstructs, the lawful apprehension of another person for an offence, or who rescues, or attempts to rescue, another person from lawful custody for an offence. The base punishment is imprisonment of up to two years, or fine, or both; the section then states four higher punishments, from three years up to imprisonment for life, according to the offence the other person is charged with or the sentence the other person is under. Its wording and punishments are the same as IPC Section 225, apart from the lettering of the clauses and a few small drafting differences.
Verified against the National Crime Records Bureau’s official BNS–IPC concordance (Sankalan Portal) and cross-checked directly against the bare text of both Acts. Section 263 is classed as Exact — the concordance carries no change tag for it, it descends from one section of the old Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the five punishments, which the IPC runs on in an opening sentence and four further paragraphs, are now lettered (a) to (e):
| BNS 263 | Covers | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 263(a) | Resistance or obstruction to the lawful apprehension of another person, or rescue or attempted rescue: base punishment | S.225 “Resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension of another person” (base punishment, in the opening sentence) | Exact |
| 263(b) | Other person charged with or liable to be apprehended for an offence punishable with imprisonment for life or up to ten years | S.225 (second paragraph, “or, if …”) | Exact |
| 263(c) | Other person charged with or liable to be apprehended for an offence punishable with death | S.225 (third paragraph) | Exact |
| 263(d) | Other person liable under a Court’s sentence, or its commutation, to imprisonment for life or for ten years or upwards | S.225 (fourth paragraph) | Exact |
| 263(e) | Other person under sentence of death | S.225 (fifth paragraph) | Exact |
A word-by-word comparison run by program (case and punctuation compared) of BNS Section 263 with IPC Section 225 shows the following differences, and no others. (1) The IPC states the base punishment in its opening sentence and then adds four further paragraphs, each beginning “or, if”; the BNS letters the five punishments (a) to (e), and each of (b) to (e) begins “if”. (2) The BNS has a comma after “Whoever” at the start (“Whoever, intentionally offers”); the IPC has none. (3) The BNS ends the opening words with a dash (“… lawfully detained for an offence,—”) and begins clause (a) with “shall be punished”; the IPC runs on from “for an offence,” directly into “shall be punished”. (4) In clause (d) the IPC reads “the sentence of a Court of Justice, or by virtue of a commutation”; the BNS reads “the sentence of a Court or by virtue of a commutation”, which drops the words “of Justice” and the comma. Section 2(5) of the Sanhita defines “Court” in the same words that IPC Section 20 used in defining “Court of Justice” (IPC Section 20 also carries an illustration), and a search of Section 2 finds no definition of “Court of Justice”; this page records the change of words as it stands in the two texts and goes no further than that. (5) Also in clause (d), the IPC has a comma after the second “imprisonment” (“or imprisonment, for a term of ten years or upwards”); the BNS has none. (6) The IPC copy consulted carries amendment footnote markers, square brackets and asterisks in the second, fourth and fifth paragraphs, showing where earlier amending Acts substituted or omitted words; the BNS text has none. The punishment in each of the five limbs is the same in both Acts: two years, or fine, or both; three years and fine; seven years and fine; seven years and fine; and imprisonment for life or up to ten years, and fine. Items (1) to (5) are differences of lettering, punctuation, or the words “of Justice”, and none of them changes a punishment.
Whoever, intentionally offers any resistance or illegal obstruction to the lawful apprehension of any other person for an offence, or rescues or attempts to rescue any other person from any custody in which that person is lawfully detained for an offence,—
(a) shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both; or
(b) if the person to be apprehended, or the person rescued or attempted to be rescued, is charged with or liable to be apprehended for an offence punishable with imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to fine; or
(c) if the person to be apprehended or rescued, or attempted to be rescued, is charged with or liable to be apprehended for an offence punishable with death, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine; or
(d) if the person to be apprehended or rescued, or attempted to be rescued, is liable under the sentence of a Court or by virtue of a commutation of such a sentence, to imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for a term of ten years or upwards, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine; or
(e) if the person to be apprehended or rescued, or attempted to be rescued, is under sentence of death, shall be punished with imprisonment for life or imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding 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.
Clause (a) is read together with the opening words that all five clauses share, so the ingredients are set out here. The offender must act “intentionally”. He must then do one of two things, joined by “or”: (i) offer “any resistance or illegal obstruction to the lawful apprehension of any other person for an offence”, or (ii) rescue, or attempt to rescue, “any other person from any custody in which that person is lawfully detained for an offence”. The person concerned is “any other person”, that is, someone other than the offender; the offender’s own apprehension or escape is dealt with in Section 262. The apprehension and the detention must both be lawful. The resistance or obstruction is directed at the apprehension, while the rescue is from custody, and rescuing and attempting to rescue are punished alike.
Section 2(15) defines “illegal” as applicable to everything which is an offence or which is prohibited by law, or which furnishes ground for a civil action; in this section the word stands before “obstruction” and is not attached to “resistance”. Section 2 does not define “lawful”, “apprehension”, “custody”, “resistance”, “obstruction” or “rescue”, so those words take their ordinary meaning. Section 2(24)(a) lists Section 263 among the provisions in which “offence” means a thing punishable under the Sanhita, or under any special law or local law, so the offence for which the other person is to be apprehended or held may be an offence under a special or local law as well as under the Sanhita.
Clause (a) states the base punishment: imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or fine, or both. Clauses (b) to (e) each state a higher punishment where the further fact described in that clause is present. The clauses are joined by “or”, and the section does not say in terms how a case that fits more than one of them is to be treated; this page states no rule on that. The BNSS First Schedule lists clause (a) as cognizable, bailable and triable by any Magistrate, whereas it lists clauses (b) to (e) as non-bailable. Under BNSS Section 478(1), a person other than one accused of a non-bailable offence, who is prepared to give bail, “shall be released on bail”. No clause of Section 263 is in either compounding table of BNSS Section 359.
Where the offender uses force on the officers, that conduct may raise further offences of its own. BNSS Section 243(1), Illustration (a), gives the example of A, who rescues B from lawful custody and in doing so causes grievous hurt to C, a constable in whose custody B was, and says that A may be charged with, and convicted of, offences under sub-section (2) of section 121 and section 263 of the Sanhita. This page does not go beyond that illustration.
Clause (b) raises the punishment where “the person to be apprehended, or the person rescued or attempted to be rescued, is charged with or liable to be apprehended for an offence punishable with imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years”. The test looks to the offence that the other person is charged with or liable to be apprehended for, and to how that offence is punishable. The clause does not refer to any offence that the obstructer or rescuer himself commits, and it does not say that the other person must have been convicted. The clause names two punishments, imprisonment for life and imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years; it does not in terms refer to offences with a lower maximum, and this page does not state a rule about them. The opening ingredients set out under clause (a) (intention, lawful apprehension or lawful custody, an offence) apply here as well.
The punishment is imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, “and shall also be liable to fine”. The clause therefore prescribes imprisonment and adds a liability to fine, whereas clause (a) makes fine an alternative (“or with fine, or with both”). Under Section 4, imprisonment is of two descriptions, rigorous and simple, and under Section 7 the Court may direct which. The BNSS First Schedule lists clause (b) as cognizable and non-bailable, triable by a Magistrate of the first class, and it is not compoundable. For a non-bailable offence, BNSS Section 480(1) says that the accused “may be released on bail”, subject to the conditions and limits stated in that Section.
One point the text leaves open should be noted. Some offences in the Sanhita are punishable with death or, as an alternative, with imprisonment for life; murder under Section 103(1) (“death or imprisonment for life”) is an example. Read literally, an offence of that kind is both one “punishable with imprisonment for life” (this clause) and one “punishable with death” (clause (c)). The section does not say which clause governs in that case, and this page states no rule.
Clause (c) applies where the person to be apprehended or rescued “is charged with or liable to be apprehended for an offence punishable with death”. Death is the first of the punishments listed in Section 4. Like clause (b), the clause looks to the offence the other person is charged with or liable to be apprehended for, and it does not depend on a sentence having been passed. The opening ingredients set out under clause (a) apply here as well: intention, a lawful apprehension or lawful custody, and an offence.
The punishment is imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, “and shall also be liable to fine”. The BNSS First Schedule lists clause (c) as cognizable and non-bailable, triable by a Magistrate of the first class, and it is not compoundable under BNSS Section 359. On the words of the clause, the tier depends on how the other person’s alleged offence is punishable; the clause does not refer to any harm caused by the obstructer or rescuer.
As noted under clause (b), an offence such as murder under Section 103(1) is punishable with death or, as an alternative, imprisonment for life, so its description can be read into both clause (b) and clause (c). The section does not say how such a case is to be treated, and this page states no rule. Clauses (b) and (c) look to the charge or the liability to apprehension; clauses (d) and (e) look to a sentence already passed.
Clause (d) applies where the person to be apprehended or rescued “is liable under the sentence of a Court or by virtue of a commutation of such a sentence, to imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for a term of ten years or upwards”. Here the focus is on a sentence already passed by a Court, or on such a sentence as commuted, and not on a charge. Section 2(5) defines “Court”. Section 5 of the Sanhita allows the appropriate Government, without the consent of the offender, to commute any punishment in accordance with BNSS Section 474; clause (d) reaches a person who is liable, whether by the sentence as passed or by virtue of its commutation, to imprisonment for life or for a term of ten years or upwards. The opening ingredients set out under clause (a) apply here as well.
The clause speaks of a term “of ten years or upwards”. Clause (b) speaks of an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term “which may extend to ten years”. Clause (b) therefore describes an offence by the punishment it carries, and clause (d) describes a person by the sentence he is liable to undergo. The punishment under clause (d) is imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, “and shall also be liable to fine”, the same as in clause (c).
The BNSS First Schedule lists clause (d) as cognizable and non-bailable, triable by a Magistrate of the first class, and it is not compoundable. The section does not say how a case that fits more than one clause is to be treated, and this page states no rule on that.
Clause (e) applies where the person to be apprehended or rescued “is under sentence of death”. Death is the first of the punishments listed in Section 4. The clause speaks of a sentence of death; clause (d) speaks expressly of liability to imprisonment for life “by virtue of a commutation” of a Court’s sentence, so a sentence of death that has been commuted to imprisonment for life (BNSS Section 474(a) provides for commuting a sentence of death for imprisonment for life) is described in the words of clause (d) and not in those of this clause. The opening ingredients set out under clause (a) apply here as well: intention, a lawful apprehension or lawful custody, and an offence.
The punishment is imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding ten years, “and shall also be liable to fine”. Among the five clauses of Section 263, whose punishments are two years, three years, seven years, seven years, and life or up to ten years, clause (e) is the only one that carries imprisonment for life. The BNSS First Schedule lists clause (e) as cognizable and non-bailable, triable by the Court of Session, and it is not compoundable under BNSS Section 359. For a non-bailable offence, bail is governed by BNSS Section 480, under which the accused “may be released on bail”, subject to the conditions and limits stated in that Section.
Clause (e) is worded by reference to a sentence, as clause (d) is, and unlike clauses (b) and (c), which are worded by reference to a charge or a liability to be apprehended. The section does not say how a case that fits more than one clause is to be treated, and this page states no rule on that.
It depends on the clause. Clause (a): imprisonment of either description for up to two years, or fine, or both. Clause (b): up to three years, and liable to fine. Clause (c): up to seven years, and liable to fine. Clause (d): up to seven years, and liable to fine. Clause (e): imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding ten years, and liable to fine.
Yes, where the person helped is someone other than yourself and is in lawful custody for an offence. The section covers a person who “rescues or attempts to rescue any other person from any custody in which that person is lawfully detained for an offence”. A person’s own escape from lawful custody is dealt with in Section 262.
Under the BNSS First Schedule, clause (a) is cognizable, bailable and triable by any Magistrate. Clauses (b), (c) and (d) are cognizable, non-bailable and triable by a Magistrate of the first class, and clause (e) is cognizable, non-bailable and triable by the Court of Session. For a bailable offence, BNSS Section 478(1) says the person, if prepared to give bail, “shall be released on bail”; for a non-bailable offence, BNSS Section 480(1) says the person “may be released on bail”. No clause is in either table of BNSS Section 359, so none is compoundable.
Not for clauses (a), (b) and (c). Clauses (b) and (c) speak of a person “charged with or liable to be apprehended for” an offence of the stated kind, and clause (a) needs only lawful apprehension or lawful custody “for an offence”. Clauses (d) and (e) are the ones that speak of a sentence.
That is a matter for other offences as well. BNSS Section 243(1), Illustration (a), says that a person who rescues someone from lawful custody and in doing so causes grievous hurt to the constable in whose custody he was may be charged with, and convicted of, offences under sub-section (2) of section 121 and section 263 of the Sanhita.
The punishments are the same. The differences found in a word-by-word comparison are the lettering (a) to (e), a comma after “Whoever”, a dash after the opening words, the words “of Justice” dropped from “Court of Justice” in clause (d), and a comma removed in clause (d); the details are set out in the comparison above.