Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) is the offence of causing death by negligence - the successor of Section 304A IPC, the provision under which fatal road accidents, medical negligence deaths and other accidental killings have long been prosecuted. The BNS carries the offence forward as a sub-section structure, raises the punishment, and adds a new hit-and-run offence.
What Section 106 BNS provides
- Section 106(1): Whoever causes the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide is punishable with imprisonment of up to 5 years and fine. Where the act is done by a registered medical practitioner while performing a medical procedure, the punishment is imprisonment of up to 2 years and fine.
- Section 106(2) -Section 106(2): A new provision aimed at hit-and-run cases: whoever causes death by rash and negligent driving of a vehicle, not amounting to culpable homicide, and escapes without reporting the incident to a police officer or a Magistrate soon after it, is punishable with imprisonment of up to 10 years and fine.
The essentials, in plain language
The section punishes death caused by carelessness, not by intention. Three things make out the base offence: (1) the death of a person; (2) a rash or negligent act of the accused - speeding through a crowded street, an unguarded excavation, a careless prescription; and (3) the absence of any intention to cause death or knowledge that death was likely - if that intention or knowledge exists, the case moves to culpable homicide or murder, not this section. Rashness means running a risk recklessly; negligence means failing to take the care a reasonable person would take.
Doctors and medical negligence
The 2-year limb for registered medical practitioners is new: the BNS softens the punishment where the death is caused during a medical procedure. The criminal threshold for doctors remains high - following Jacob Mathew v. State of Punjab (2005), a doctor is criminally liable only for gross negligence, not for a mere error of judgment or an adverse outcome.
Procedure and bail
Both limbs of Section 106(1) are cognizable and bailable, triable by a Magistrate of the first class. Because the offence under Section 106(1) is bailable, an accused is entitled to bail as of right at the police station or before the Magistrate.
On the other hand, the hit-and-run offence under Section 106(2) carries a severe punishment of up to 10 years imprisonment and is non-bailable and cognizable. Therefore, under Section 106(2), an accused cannot claim bail as a matter of right, and granting bail remains at the discretion of the Court.
What changed from Section 304A IPC
Section 304A IPC punished causing death by a rash or negligent act with imprisonment of up to 2 years, or fine, or both. The BNS makes three changes: the general punishment rises to 5 years and fine; registered medical practitioners get a separate, lighter limb of 2 years and fine; and Section 106(2) creates the distinct, more severely punished offence of causing death by negligent driving and fleeing without reporting - the IPC had no such provision, and fleeing drivers were prosecuted under the same 304A as everyone else.
Facing a Section 106 BNS case after an accident, or a bereaved family seeking justice? These cases turn on the investigation record - the mechanical report, site plan and witness statements - assembled in the first weeks. Talk to a criminal lawyer in your city or browse advocates in the Free Law directory.