Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) prescribes the punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. It replaced Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code when the BNS came into force on 1 July 2024 - and unlike many renumbered provisions, this one was tightened: a minimum sentence of five years has been added and the fine has been made mandatory.
What Section 105 BNS provides
The section keeps the familiar two-limb scheme of the old law, graded by the offender's state of mind:
- The intention limb - where the act by which death is caused is done with the intention of causing death, or of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death: imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of not less than five years which may extend to ten years, and fine.
- The knowledge limb - The knowledge limb — where the act is done with the knowledge that it is likely to cause death, but without any intention to cause death or such bodily injury: imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and fine.
Culpable homicide vs murder
Every murder is culpable homicide, but not every culpable homicide is murder. A killing is punished under this section rather than as murder when the offender's intention or knowledge falls short of what murder requires, or when the case attracts one of the recognised exceptions - grave and sudden provocation, private defence exceeded in good faith, a sudden fight without premeditation, and the like. The Supreme Court's decision in State of Andhra Pradesh v. Rayavarapu Punnayya (1976) remains the classic guide to drawing this line by the degree of intention and knowledge, and in practice much of a Sessions trial is fought precisely over which side of the line the case falls.
Procedure and bail
The offence is cognizable and non-bailable, and is triable by the Court of Session.
What changed from Section 304 IPC
Two things, both making the provision stricter:
- A minimum sentence. Section 304 IPC prescribed only maximums — imprisonment for life or up to ten years under its first part, and up to ten years under its second. Section 105 BNS adds a minimum floor of five years' imprisonment in the first limb (intention limb), while the second limb (knowledge limb) carries imprisonment up to ten years without a mandatory minimum floor.
- Mandatory fine. Under the old second part a court could impose a fine alone, or imprisonment without fine. Under Section 105, imprisonment and fine now go together in both limbs.
Because the ingredients of the offence itself are unchanged, the decades of case law on the culpable homicide / murder distinction continue to apply.
Facing a culpable homicide charge, or a murder charge you believe belongs under this section? These are Sessions trials where the framing of the charge is often the battleground, and the new minimum sentence raises the stakes of that framing. Talk to a criminal lawyer in your city or browse advocates in the Free Law directory.