Section 83 punishes whoever, dishonestly or with a fraudulent intention, goes through a marriage ceremony while knowing that he is not thereby lawfully married. The punishment is imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and fine.
Verified against the National Crime Records Bureau's official BNS–IPC concordance (Sankalan Portal), which maps Section 83 to old IPC Section 496, and cross-checked directly against the bare text of both Acts. Old IPC Section 496 is present in this project's local IPC source text intact, under its own number, allowing a full direct comparison.
| BNS 83 | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 83 | 496 (Marriage ceremony fraudulently gone through without lawful marriage) | Exact |
Comparing the two texts word for word, the ingredients and punishment are reproduced without any substantive change: the requirement of dishonesty or fraudulent intention, knowledge that no lawful marriage results, and the punishment of imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and fine, all match the old provision exactly.
Whoever, dishonestly or with a fraudulent intention, goes through the ceremony of being married, knowing that he is not thereby lawfully married, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 45 of 2023), as published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.
Section 83 requires two elements together: dishonesty or fraudulent intention, and actual knowledge on the accused's part that going through the ceremony will not result in a lawful marriage. This section is distinct from Section 82, which requires an actually void marriage due to a subsisting prior marriage — Section 83 instead targets a ceremony gone through with no lawful marriage resulting at all (for example, where a required legal formality is deliberately omitted or a false condition is misrepresented), knowingly and dishonestly, regardless of whether the accused has any other subsisting marriage.
Section 82 punishes marrying again while a former husband or wife is still living, making the new marriage void for that reason. Section 83 instead punishes knowingly and dishonestly going through a ceremony that results in no lawful marriage at all, regardless of whether the accused has any other subsisting marriage.
Yes. The bare text requires that the accused go through the ceremony "knowing that he is not thereby lawfully married," in addition to acting dishonestly or with fraudulent intention.
No. The bare text states only a maximum of seven years' imprisonment, and fine, with no stated minimum term.