Section 275 punishes a person who sells, or offers or exposes for sale, as food or drink an article that has been rendered or has become noxious, or is in a state unfit for food or drink, knowing or having reason to believe that it is noxious as food or drink. The punishment is 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 273, 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 cross-checked directly against the bare text of both Acts. Section 275 is marked Substantively changed — it descends from one section of the old Indian Penal Code, 1860, but the maximum fine has been raised:
| BNS 275 | Covers | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 275 | Sale of noxious food or drink | S.273 “Sale of noxious food or drink” | Substantively changed |
The description of the offence is the same in both Acts. A word-by-word comparison of the two texts, with every differing span examined, found one difference in the operative words, and it is in the punishment clause: IPC Section 273 said “fine which may extend to one thousand rupees”, and BNS Section 275 says “fine which may extend to five thousand rupees”. The maximum fine therefore rises from ₹1,000 to ₹5,000. The imprisonment term (up to six months) and the three possible outcomes (imprisonment, fine, or both) are unchanged, and apart from the section number and the marginal heading no other word or punctuation mark differs. No ingredient of the offence was added or removed.
Whoever sells, or offers or exposes for sale, as food or drink, any article which has been rendered or has become noxious, or is in a state unfit for food or drink, knowing or having reason to believe that the same is noxious as food or drink, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description 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 275 has three ingredients. The first is an act, in three alternatives: the offender sells, or offers for sale, or exposes for sale, the article as food or drink. The second concerns the article: it must be one which has been rendered noxious, or has become noxious, or is in a state unfit for food or drink. The third is a mental element, in two alternatives: the offender must be knowing or having reason to believe that the article is noxious as food or drink. Section 2(29) defines “reason to believe”: a person is said to have reason to believe a thing if he has sufficient cause to believe that thing but not otherwise. The Sanhita does not define “sells”, “noxious”, “food” or “drink” in Section 2, so those words take their ordinary meaning; in ordinary usage, “noxious” means harmful.
Two points follow from the wording. The section does not say who rendered the article noxious, or how it became so (“has been rendered or has become noxious”), so it is not confined to the person who adulterated the article; adulteration by the offender himself with an intention or knowledge about sale is the subject of Section 274. And the mental element is worded as knowing or having reason to believe that the article “is noxious as food or drink”; this page does not go beyond the words of the section on how those words apply to an article that is only “in a state unfit for food or drink”. Offering or exposing for sale is enough on the words of the section: no completed sale is required. The article must be sold or offered or exposed as food or drink.
The punishment is imprisonment of either description (rigorous, with hard labour, or simple, as listed in Section 4(c)) for a term which may extend to six months, or fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or both. Under the BNSS First Schedule the offence is 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 applies to a person other than one accused of a non-bailable offence and provides that, if he is prepared to give bail, he “shall be released on bail”), triable by any Magistrate, and not in either compounding table of BNSS Section 359 (and Section 359(9) provides that no offence shall be compounded except as provided by that Section). The corresponding provisions for drugs and medical preparations are Sections 276 to 278.
Yes, on the words of the section: it covers a person who sells, or offers or exposes for sale, the article as food or drink. A completed sale is one of the alternatives, not a requirement.
The section requires the seller to be “knowing or having reason to believe” that the article is noxious as food or drink. Under Section 2(29), a person has “reason to believe” a thing if he has sufficient cause to believe that thing but not otherwise. Whether that is met on given facts is a question of fact.
Under the First Schedule to the BNSS it is non-cognizable and bailable, triable by any Magistrate. 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. Because it is bailable, BNSS Section 478 applies: a person who is prepared to give bail “shall be released on bail”. The offence is not in either compounding table of BNSS Section 359.
The description of the offence is unchanged. The one difference in the text is the fine: the maximum rises from ₹1,000 (IPC Section 273) to ₹5,000 (BNS Section 275). The maximum imprisonment stays at six months.
Section 274 is about the person who adulterates the food or drink, with an intention to sell or knowledge that it is likely to be sold. Section 275 is about selling, offering or exposing for sale an article that is noxious or unfit, knowing or having reason to believe that it is noxious as food or drink; it does not say that the seller must be the person who made it noxious.