Section 267 punishes anyone who intentionally offers an insult to a public servant, or causes an interruption to a public servant, while that public servant is sitting in any stage of a judicial proceeding. The punishment is simple imprisonment of up to six months, or a fine of up to ₹5,000, or both. It is the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’s version of IPC Section 228, with the maximum fine raised from ₹1,000 to ₹5,000.
Verified against the National Crime Records Bureau’s official BNS–IPC concordance (Sankalan Portal) and compared word by word, by a systematic text comparison, with the bare text of both Acts. Section 267 is marked Substantively changed — it descends from one section of the old Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the maximum fine has been raised:
| BNS 267 | Covers | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 267 | Intentional insult or interruption to public servant sitting in judicial proceeding | S.228 “Intentional insult or interruption to public servant sitting in judicial proceeding” | Substantively changed |
The comparison of IPC Section 228 with BNS Section 267 found two differences in the text of the section itself. (i) The maximum fine: IPC 228 says “fine which may extend to one thousand rupees”; BNS 267 says “fine which may extend to five thousand rupees”, so the maximum fine is five times as high (₹1,000 to ₹5,000). (ii) Punctuation: the BNS prints a comma after the word “Whoever” (“Whoever, intentionally offers any insult”), which the IPC text does not have. The description of the conduct, the timing condition (“while such public servant is sitting in any stage of a judicial proceeding”) and the imprisonment (simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months) are worded the same way in both Acts. Apart from the section number and the way the heading is printed, the comparison found nothing else. No ingredient of the offence was added or removed.
Whoever, intentionally offers any insult, or causes any interruption to any public servant, while such public servant is sitting in any stage of a judicial proceeding, 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.
Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 45 of 2023), as published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.
Section 267 punishes two kinds of conduct directed at a public servant at one particular time: intentionally offering the public servant any insult, or causing any interruption to the public servant, in each case while such public servant is sitting in any stage of a judicial proceeding. The timing condition is part of the offence. Because the section is tied to the moment when the public servant is sitting in a judicial proceeding, the same insult offered to that person elsewhere is outside these words; other provisions of the Sanhita, such as Section 352 and Section 221, are separate offences with their own wording.
“Public servant” is not limited to a Judge in this section. Section 2(28) of the Sanhita lists the descriptions of persons who are public servants; they include, under clause (b), “every Judge including any person empowered by law to discharge, whether by himself or as a member of any body of persons, any adjudicatory functions” and, under clause (d), “every assessor or member of a panchayat assisting a Court or public servant”. Whether a particular person sitting in a proceeding is within Section 267 therefore depends on whether that person answers one of the descriptions in Section 2(28).
“Judicial proceeding” is not defined in Section 2 of the Sanhita. Section 2(39) provides that words used but not defined in the Sanhita, and defined in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), carry the meanings given there, and BNSS Section 2(1)(m) says that “judicial proceeding” includes any proceeding in the course of which evidence is or may be legally taken on oath. Because that definition says “includes”, this page reports it as the BNSS’s inclusive definition and does not go beyond it. The section covers “any stage” of such a proceeding; it does not say that only the final hearing counts. The words “insult” and “interruption” are not defined in Section 2 either; in ordinary usage, an insult is words or conduct showing disrespect, and an interruption is a break in what is going on. The word “intentionally” stands once in the section, ahead of “offers any insult, or causes any interruption”, and the heading of the section also speaks of an “Intentional insult or interruption”; this page does not go further than those words.
The punishment is simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or both, so a court may impose any one of the three. “Simple” imprisonment is one of the two descriptions of imprisonment listed in Section 4(c) of the Sanhita (the other being rigorous, that is, with hard labour); this section provides only for simple imprisonment. The BNSS First Schedule lists the offence 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 it or commit it for trial), bailable (BNSS Section 478 provides that a person accused of a bailable offence who is prepared to give bail “shall be released on bail”), and triable by the Court in which the offence is committed, subject to Chapter XXVIII of the BNSS, or otherwise by any Magistrate. It is in neither compounding table of BNSS Section 359.
Two BNSS provisions refer to this section by number. BNSS Section 215(1)(b)(i) provides that no Court shall take cognizance of an offence under Section 267 of the Sanhita, when alleged to have been committed in, or in relation to, any proceeding in any Court, except on the complaint in writing of that Court, or of such officer of the Court as it authorises in writing, or of some other Court to which that Court is subordinate. BNSS Section 384 (Procedure in certain cases of contempt) deals with the case where the offence is committed in the view or presence of a Civil, Criminal or Revenue Court: the Court may cause the offender to be detained in custody and may, before the rising of the Court on the same day, take cognizance and, after giving a reasonable opportunity to show cause, sentence the offender to a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees and, in default of payment, to simple imprisonment for up to one month. BNSS Section 385 lets the Court instead forward the case to a Magistrate. Those provisions are procedural and sit beside the definition of the offence.
No. The section speaks of “any public servant” who is sitting in any stage of a judicial proceeding. Section 2(28) lists who is a public servant; a Judge is one of the descriptions (clause (b)), but so is an assessor or member of a panchayat assisting a Court or public servant (clause (d)). Whether a given person is within the section depends on whether that person answers one of the descriptions in Section 2(28).
Neither word is defined in Section 2 of the Sanhita, and the section gives no list of examples, so the words are read in their ordinary sense: in ordinary usage an insult is words or conduct showing disrespect, and an interruption is a break in what is going on. What the section adds is the setting: it must happen while the public servant is sitting in any stage of a judicial proceeding, and the section uses the word “intentionally”.
Under the First Schedule to the BNSS it is a non-cognizable and bailable offence. Bail can therefore be claimed as a matter of right (BNSS Section 478, under which a person accused of a bailable offence who is prepared to give bail “shall be released on bail”). It is triable by the Court in which the offence is committed, subject to the provisions of Chapter XXVIII of the BNSS, or, if not committed in a Court, by any Magistrate. It is not one of the offences listed in the compounding tables of BNSS Section 359, so it is not compoundable.
BNSS Section 384 provides a procedure where an offence described in Section 267 is committed in the view or presence of a Civil, Criminal or Revenue Court: the Court may cause the offender to be detained in custody and may, at any time before the rising of the Court on the same day, take cognizance of the offence and, after giving a reasonable opportunity of showing cause, sentence the offender to a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees (with simple imprisonment for up to one month in default of payment). BNSS Section 385 allows the Court, if it considers the case should not be disposed of that way, to forward it to a Magistrate having jurisdiction. Whether a particular case goes down that route is a matter for the Court on its facts.
The description of the offence and the imprisonment are worded the same way. The differences found are the maximum fine, which rises from one thousand rupees to five thousand rupees, and a comma that the BNS prints after the word “Whoever”.