Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 — Section 59

Public Servant Concealing Design to Commit Offence Which It Is His Duty to Prevent

Section 59 is a heightened version of Section 58, aimed specifically at a public servant who conceals a design to commit an offence that it was that public servant's own duty to prevent. The punishment scales with the gravity of the offence concealed: up to one-half of the longest term provided for the offence if it is committed, up to ten years if the offence concealed is one punishable with death or life imprisonment, and up to one-fourth of the longest term if the offence is not committed at all.

Please note: This page reflects our understanding of the law as of the date it was last reviewed. Parliament, the State Legislatures, and the courts continue to amend and interpret this law, and this page may not yet reflect the most recent change. Please verify the current text of the law independently, and consult a licensed advocate for advice on your own matter, before relying on this page.

Corresponding Provision Under Prior Law

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 59 is marked Substantively changed:

BNS 59	Covers	IPC, 1860 equivalent	Category
59	Public servant concealing design to commit offence which it is his duty to prevent	S.119 (concealment methods expanded; punishment tiers unchanged)	Substantively changed

Comparing the bare text directly, the three punishment tiers of BNS Section 59 — one-half of the longest term if committed, up to ten years if the offence concealed is punishable with death or life imprisonment, and one-fourth of the longest term if not committed — are unchanged from old IPC Section 119. The precise textual delta, as in Section 58, is in how concealment may be carried out: IPC 119 referred to concealment "by any act or illegal omission." BNS 59 refers to concealment "by any act or omission or by the use of encryption or any other information hiding tool," so the word "illegal" no longer qualifies "omission" and concealment by encryption or any other information hiding tool is added. The continuous "if committed / if punishable with death, etc. / if not committed" prose of IPC 119 is also reformatted into lettered clauses (a), (b), and (c). The illustration is otherwise unchanged apart from one added word: "with intent to facilitate" in the IPC becomes "with intent to so facilitate" in the BNS.

Quick Reference

Section 59 is a punishment provision targeting a public servant's concealment of a design to commit an offence that it was specifically that public servant's own duty to prevent. It is classified as follows in the First Schedule to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), quoted as that Schedule words each entry:

(a) if the offence be committed: punishment — “Imprisonment extending to one-half of the longest term provided for the offence, or fine, or both.” · cognizable or non-cognizable — “According as offence abetted is cognizable or non-cognizable.” · bailable or non-bailable — “According as offence abetted is bailable or non-bailable.” · triable by — “Court by which offence abetted is triable.”
(b) if the offence be punishable with death or imprisonment for life: punishment — “Imprisonment for 10 years.” · cognizable or non-cognizable — “According as offence abetted is cognizable or non-cognizable.” · bailable or non-bailable — “Non-bailable.” · triable by — “Court by which offence abetted is triable.”
(c) if the offence be not committed: punishment — “Imprisonment extending to one-fourth of the longest term provided for the offence, or fine, or both.” · cognizable or non-cognizable — “According as offence abetted is cognizable or non-cognizable.” · bailable or non-bailable — “Bailable.” · triable by — “Court by which offence abetted is triable.”
Compoundable: Not listed in either compounding table of BNSS S.359.

The Schedule words this entry as “Imprisonment for 10 years”; the section's own text says a term “which may extend to” that period, and the section's own text governs (the Schedule states that its entries are “merely as indication of the substance of the section”).

What it requires: the accused, being a public servant, intending to facilitate or knowing it likely that they would facilitate the commission of an offence which it was their duty as such public servant to prevent, voluntarily concealed — by act, omission, encryption, or any other information-hiding tool — the existence of a design to commit that offence, or made a knowingly false representation about it.
Tier (a) — offence committed: imprisonment of any description for a term which may extend to one-half of the longest term provided for the offence, or such fine as is provided for that offence, or both.
Tier (b) — offence punishable with death or life imprisonment: imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years.
Tier (c) — offence not committed: imprisonment of any description for a term which may extend to one-fourth of the longest term provided for the offence, or such fine as is provided for the offence, or both.

Statutory Text (Verbatim)

Whoever, being a public servant, intending to facilitate or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby facilitate the commission of an offence which it is his duty as such public servant to prevent, voluntarily conceals, by any act or omission or by the use of encryption or any other information hiding tool, the existence of a design to commit such offence, or makes any representation which he knows to be false respecting such design shall,––

(a) if the offence be committed, be punished with imprisonment of any description provided for the offence, for a term which may extend to one-half of the longest term of such imprisonment, or with such fine as is provided for that offence, or with both; or

(b) if the offence be punishable with death or imprisonment for life, with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years; or

(c) if the offence be not committed, shall be punished with imprisonment of any description provided for the offence for a term which may extend to one-fourth part of the longest term of such imprisonment or with such fine as is provided for the offence, or with both.

Illustration.
A, an officer of police, being legally bound to give information of all designs to commit robbery which may come to his knowledge, and knowing that B designs to commit robbery, omits to give such information, with intent to so facilitate the commission of that offence. Here A has by an illegal omission concealed the existence of B's design, and is liable to punishment according to the provision of this section.

Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 45 of 2023), as published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.

Explanation & Illustration (Lexovia's Commentary — Not Statutory Text)

(a) Concealment where the offence is committed

Explanation (Lexovia's Commentary)

This clause targets a public servant who is specifically duty-bound to prevent a particular kind of offence, and who instead conceals a known design to commit it, whether by silence, by some other act or omission, or now expressly by encrypting or otherwise hiding relevant information. Where the offence is committed, the maximum punishment is one-half of the longest term provided for that offence, with the alternatives of such fine as is provided for the offence, or both. This differs in form from Section 58, which fixes flat maximum terms rather than a fraction of the longest term for the offence concealed. The statute's own illustration is a clean example: a police officer, legally bound to report designs to commit robbery, deliberately withholds that information to help the robbery along.

Illustration (Lexovia's Own Example)

A, a police constable assigned to night patrol of a market area, is told by an informant that B intends to break into a godown there that night to steal goods. Intending to help B succeed, A deliberately changes his patrol route to avoid the godown and tells his superior that nothing unusual has been reported. B commits the theft as planned. Because A is a public servant whose duty it was to prevent the offence, concealed the design intending to facilitate it, and the offence was committed, A is liable under clause (a) to imprisonment of any description provided for theft for a term which may extend to one-half of the longest term of such imprisonment, or such fine as is provided for that offence, or both.

(b) Concealment where the offence concealed carries death or life imprisonment

Explanation (Lexovia's Commentary)

This clause carves out a fixed, higher punishment (up to ten years) for the gravest category of concealed offence — one punishable with death or imprisonment for life — regardless of the fractional calculation used in the other two tiers. This ensures that a public servant who conceals a design to facilitate, say, a murder faces a substantial, fixed maximum term rather than a fraction that might otherwise be calculated differently depending on how the underlying offence's own sentencing range is read.

Illustration (Lexovia's Own Example)

A prison guard, whose duty it is to prevent violence among inmates, learns that a group of inmates is planning to kill a fellow inmate. Intending to facilitate the plan, the guard deliberately deletes the encrypted messages in which the plan was discussed, so that no record of the design ever comes to light. Because murder is an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life, the guard is liable under clause (b) to imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years.

(c) Concealment where the offence is not committed

Explanation (Lexovia's Commentary)

This clause covers the same public-servant concealment as clause (a), but where the concealed offence is, in the end, never actually committed. The punishment is correspondingly lower — up to one-fourth of the longest term rather than one-half — while still punishing the deliberate concealment as a wrong in its own right, since the public servant's breach of duty occurred the moment they chose to conceal the design, regardless of whether the offence was ultimately carried out.

Illustration (Lexovia's Own Example)

A customs officer, whose duty it is to prevent smuggling, learns that a shipment of smuggled goods is planned for the following week and, intending to help the plan succeed, does not report it as required. Before the shipment can take place, an unrelated tip leads other officers to seize the goods at the source, so the smuggling offence concealed by A is never actually committed. A is liable under clause (c) to imprisonment of any description for a term which may extend to one-fourth of the longest term provided for that offence, or the fine provided for the offence, or both.

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Related / Cross-Referenced Sections

FAQs

Does Section 59 apply to any public servant, or only one with a specific duty to prevent that offence?

It applies specifically to a public servant whose own duty, as such public servant, was to prevent the very offence they concealed a design to commit.

Why is the punishment under Section 59 worded differently from Section 58?

Section 58 fixes flat maximum terms (seven years if the offence is committed, three if it is not). Tiers (a) and (c) of Section 59 are instead fractions (one-half and one-fourth) of the longest term provided for the offence concealed, and tier (b) fixes ten years where that offence is punishable with death or imprisonment for life. Section 59 also applies only to a public servant whose own duty it was to prevent that very offence.

What happens if the offence concealed carries the death penalty or life imprisonment?

A separate, fixed tier applies: imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years. The wording of clause (b) does not itself make this tier depend on whether the offence is ultimately committed.