Section 143 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) is the offence of trafficking of person. It is the direct successor of Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code, carried into the new code when the BNS came into force on 1 July 2024 with a single drafting change: the word "minor" is replaced by "child".
What Section 143 BNS provides
Section 143(1) defines the offence. A person commits trafficking who, for the purpose of exploitation, does any of these acts:
- recruits, transports, harbours, transfers, or receives any person, by using any of these means:
- threats, force, or any other form of coercion;
- abduction;
- fraud or deception;
- abuse of power; or
- inducement, including the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of any person having control over the victim
"Exploitation" is defined widely: it includes any act of physical exploitation or any form of sexual exploitation, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, begging, or the forced removal of organs. Crucially, the consent of the victim is immaterial; a trafficked person cannot legally "agree" to being exploited, and consent rendered through threats, force, coercion, or fraud is no defence. Furthermore, the consent of any person having control over a child or victim is irrelevant if the means specified under the section are employed..
Punishment and classification
The base offence is punishable with rigorous imprisonment for not less than 7 years, which may extend to 10 years, and fine. The offence is cognizable (police can register an FIR and investigate without a magistrate's order), non-bailable (bail is at the court's discretion, not a right), and triable by the Court of Session.
The section then grades the punishment upward for aggravated forms - trafficking more than one person, trafficking a child, repeat offenders, and trafficking involving a public servant or police officer - with the gravest forms punishable with imprisonment for life meaning the remainder of that person's natural life.
The offence in plain language
Three ingredients must combine: an act (recruiting, moving, harbouring, transferring or receiving a person), a means (coercion, abduction, fraud, abuse of power or inducement), and a purpose (exploitation). Typical fact patterns include luring workers with false job promises into bonded labour, moving women or children for sexual exploitation, and placing children into forced begging. Because the definition catches everyone in the chain - the recruiter, the transporter and the receiver - liability is not limited to the person who ultimately exploits the victim.
What changed from Section 370 IPC
Almost nothing. The modern trafficking definition entered the IPC in 2013, when Section 370 was substituted by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 following the Justice Verma Committee's recommendations. The BNS carries that scheme forward as Section 143, replacing the word "minor" with "child" in line with the new code's terminology. The offence, the means, the exploitation definition and the graded punishments remain, and case law under Section 370 IPC continues to apply. Offences committed before 1 July 2024 are still tried under Section 370 IPC.
Involved in a trafficking case - as a victim's family, an informant or an accused? These are Sessions trials built on chains of evidence across places and people, and early legal advice matters. Talk to a criminal lawyer in your city or browse advocates in the Free Law directory.