Section 264 applies to a public servant who is legally bound to apprehend a person, or to keep a person in confinement, and who omits to apprehend that person or lets him escape from confinement, in a case not provided for in Section 259, 260 or 261 or in any other law. If the public servant does so intentionally, the punishment is imprisonment of up to three years, or fine, or both; if negligently, simple imprisonment of up to two years, or fine, or both. Its wording and punishments are the same as IPC Section 225A, apart from 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 264 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 its wording is the same apart from the small points noted below:
| BNS 264 | Covers | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 264(a) | Public servant intentionally omitting to apprehend, or suffering escape, in cases not otherwise provided for | S.225A(a) “Omission to apprehend, or sufferance of escape, on part of public servant, in cases not otherwise, provided for” | Exact |
| 264(b) | Public servant doing so negligently | S.225A(b) (same section) | Exact |
A word-by-word comparison run by program (case and punctuation compared) of BNS Section 264 with IPC Section 225A shows the following differences, and no others. (1) The opening words refer to other sections by number: the IPC reads “section 221, section 222 or section 223” and the BNS reads “section 259, section 260 or section 261”; the concordance pairs IPC Sections 221, 222 and 223 with BNS Sections 259, 260 and 261. (2) In clause (a) the IPC reads “or with fine or with both” and the BNS reads “or with fine, or with both”, with a comma after “fine”. (3) In the heading, the IPC copy reads “in cases not otherwise, provided for”, with a comma after “otherwise”; the BNS heading has no comma. (4) The IPC page prints the dash after “punished” as a hyphen and the BNS prints it as a dash. (5) The IPC copy prints Section 225A within square brackets with an amendment footnote marker; the BNS text has none. The punishments are the same in both Acts: imprisonment of either description up to three years, or fine, or both, if the public servant acts intentionally; and simple imprisonment up to two years, or fine, or both, if negligently.
Whoever, being a public servant legally bound as such public servant to apprehend, or to keep in confinement, any person in any case not provided for in section 259, section 260 or section 261, or in any other law for the time being in force, omits to apprehend that person or suffers him to escape from confinement, shall be punished—
(a) if he does so intentionally, with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both; and
(b) if he does so negligently, with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two 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.
Section 264 applies only to cases not provided for in Sections 259 to 261 or in any other law, so it works as a residual provision for public servants, and its opening words carry the ingredients common to both clauses. The person must be a public servant who is “legally bound as such public servant to apprehend, or to keep in confinement, any person”. Section 2(28) sets out who is a public servant, and Section 2(15) provides that a person is said to be “legally bound to do” whatever it is illegal in him to omit. The case must be one “not provided for in section 259, section 260 or section 261, or in any other law for the time being in force”. And the public servant must either omit to apprehend that person or suffer him to escape from confinement (in the section’s words, he “omits to apprehend that person or suffers him to escape from confinement”). Section 2 does not define “apprehend”, “confinement” or “escape”, so those words take their ordinary meaning.
Read with the sections it names. Section 259 speaks of a public servant legally bound to apprehend, or to keep in confinement, a person charged with or liable to be apprehended for an offence, who intentionally omits to apprehend that person, intentionally suffers him to escape, or intentionally aids his escape. Section 260 does the same for a person under sentence of a Court for any offence or lawfully committed to custody. Section 261 concerns a public servant who negligently suffers a person charged with or convicted of an offence, or lawfully committed to custody, to escape from confinement. Clause (a), which applies where the public servant acts intentionally, is therefore left with cases those sections and any other law do not provide for; on the words of Sections 259 and 260, one kind of case they do not describe is one in which the person to be apprehended or kept in confinement is not charged with or liable to be apprehended for an offence, is not under sentence of a Court, and is not lawfully committed to custody. The section does not list those cases, and this page does not try to.
Where the public servant acts intentionally, the punishment is imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or fine, or both. Under Section 4, imprisonment is of two descriptions, rigorous and simple, and under Section 7 the Court may direct that it be wholly rigorous, wholly simple, or partly one and partly the other. The BNSS First Schedule lists clause (a) as non-cognizable (under BNSS Section 2(1)(o), a police officer has no authority to arrest without warrant in a non-cognizable case, and under BNSS Section 174(2), 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), bailable (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”) and triable by a Magistrate of the first class. It is not in either compounding table of BNSS Section 359.
Clause (b) covers the same conduct as clause (a), omitting to apprehend or suffering an escape from confinement, in the same kind of case (one not provided for in Sections 259 to 261 or in any other law), but where the public servant “does so negligently”. Section 2 does not define “negligently”; in ordinary usage, negligent conduct is a failure to take the care that would ordinarily be expected. The two clauses are distinguished by the public servant’s state of mind, intentional in clause (a) and negligent in clause (b), and by the punishment.
Section 261 already punishes a public servant who negligently suffers a person charged with or convicted of an offence, or lawfully committed to custody, to escape from confinement. What Section 261 does not mention is a negligent omission to apprehend, and Sections 259 and 260 speak only of intentional omission. On the words of those sections, a negligent omission to apprehend is not described by any of Sections 259 to 261, and clause (b) of Section 264 does describe it, provided that the case is also not provided for in any other law. Clause (b) likewise applies to a negligent sufferance of escape in a case that Section 261 and the other sections and laws do not provide for.
The punishment under clause (b) is simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or fine, or both. Simple imprisonment is one of the two descriptions of imprisonment in Section 4(c), and clause (b) prescribes it alone, whereas clause (a) prescribes imprisonment of either description. The BNSS First Schedule lists clause (b) as non-cognizable, bailable and triable by any Magistrate. It is not in either compounding table of BNSS Section 359.
If the public servant acts intentionally, imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or fine, or both. If the public servant acts negligently, simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or fine, or both.
Section 264 applies only to a case “not provided for in section 259, section 260 or section 261, or in any other law for the time being in force”. Sections 259 and 260 speak of intentional omission to apprehend, or intentional sufferance of escape, in the case of a person charged with or liable to be apprehended for an offence, or under sentence of a Court or lawfully committed to custody; Section 261 speaks of negligently suffering such a person to escape from confinement. What is left to Section 264 depends on the words of those sections and of any other law.
Under the BNSS First Schedule both clauses are non-cognizable and bailable. Clause (a) is triable by a Magistrate of the first class and clause (b) by any Magistrate. Under BNSS Section 174(2), 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. Neither clause is in either table of BNSS Section 359, so neither is compoundable.
The public servant’s state of mind. Clause (a) applies where the public servant omits to apprehend, or suffers the escape, intentionally, and clause (b) where the public servant does so negligently. Clause (a) allows imprisonment of either description up to three years, or fine, or both; clause (b) allows only simple imprisonment up to two years, or fine, or both.
The punishments are the same. The differences found in a word-by-word comparison are the updated section numbers in the opening words (259, 260 and 261 for the IPC’s 221, 222 and 223), a comma after “fine” in clause (a), a comma in the heading, and the form of the dash after “punished”.