Indian Penal Code

The Indian Penal Code (IPC) was the official criminal code in the Republic of India, inherited from British India after since independence till it was replaced by Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in December 2023. It was a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of the first Law Commission of India established in 1834 under the Charter Act of 1833 under the chairmanship of Thomas Babington Macaulay. It came into force in the subcontinent during the British rule in 1862. However, it did not apply automatically in the Princely states, which had their own courts and legal systems until the 1940s. The code has since been amended several times and is now supplemented by other criminal provisions.

After the partition of India in 1947, the British Indian Penal Code was inherited by the dominions of India and Pakistan, where it continues independently as the Indian Penal Code and Pakistan Penal Code respectively. After the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan, the code continued in force there. The code was also adopted by the British colonial authorities in Colonial Burma, British Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), the Straits Settlements (now part of Malaysia), Singapore and Brunei, and remains the basis of the criminal codes in those countries.

On 11 August 2023, the Government introduced a Bill in the Lok Sabha to replace the Indian Penal Code with a draft Code called the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).