Indian Penal Code

The Indian Penal Code (IPC) was the official criminal code in the Republic of India, inherited from British India after independence, until 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 Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay. It came into force on 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.

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).