Section 7 gives the sentencing court a choice whenever an offender is punishable with imprisonment that may be of either description: the court may direct that the imprisonment be wholly rigorous, wholly simple, or partly rigorous and partly simple.
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 7 is marked Exact correspondence:
| BNS 7 | Covers | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Sentence may be (in certain cases of imprisonment) wholly or partly rigorous or simple | S.60 “Sentence may be (in certain cases of imprisonment) wholly or partly rigorous or simple” | Exact |
Comparing the bare text directly, BNS Section 7 reproduces old IPC Section 60 word for word, with no substantive change of any kind.
In every case in which an offender is punishable with imprisonment which may be of either description, it shall be competent to the Court which sentences such offender to direct in the sentence that such imprisonment shall be wholly rigorous, or that such imprisonment shall be wholly simple, or that any part of such imprisonment shall be rigorous and the rest simple.
Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 45 of 2023), as published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.
Section 4(c) splits imprisonment into two descriptions — rigorous (with hard labour) and simple (without it). Where a specific offence's punishment clause allows “imprisonment of either description,” leaving the choice open rather than fixing rigorous or simple imprisonment alone, this section confirms the sentencing court's power to make that choice explicit in the sentence itself, and goes further: the court is not limited to an all-or-nothing choice. It may direct that the whole term be rigorous, that the whole term be simple, or that the term be split, with one part served as rigorous imprisonment and the rest as simple imprisonment. This gives the court a graduated tool for tailoring the practical character of the imprisonment to the facts of the case, within whatever total term the offence's own punishment clause allows.
No. Section 7 only applies where the specific offence's punishment clause allows imprisonment “of either description” in the first place. Where a punishment clause fixes rigorous imprisonment only (or simple imprisonment only), this section's discretion does not come into play.
Yes. Section 7 expressly allows the court to direct that any part of the imprisonment be rigorous and the rest simple, in addition to the simpler options of directing the whole term be wholly rigorous or wholly simple.