Final Revision Sheet: Landmark Cases, Confusing Pairs and Numbers

• Common intention (2+, s.3(5)) vs common object (5+, s.190).

• Culpable homicide ("likely") vs murder ("must in all probability"; "sufficient in the ordinary course of nature").

• Abetment (instigation, conspiracy with act, aid) vs criminal conspiracy (agreement only).

• Preparation (not punishable) vs attempt (punishable).

• Kidnapping (minor, unsound mind, or conveying out of India) vs abduction (force or deceit; any person).

• Wrongful restraint (one direction) vs wrongful confinement (all directions).

• Theft (taking) vs extortion (delivery by fear) vs robbery (instant fear or hurt) vs dacoity (five or more).

• Criminal misappropriation (innocent possession) vs criminal breach of trust (entrustment).

• Cheating (deception from start) vs breach of contract.

• Unlawful assembly (no force) vs riot (force) vs affray (two or more, public place, fighting).

• Private defence of body (death for six grave categories) vs of property (death for robbery, night house-breaking, arson of dwelling, etc.).

• Insanity (cognitive test) vs irresistible impulse (not recognised in India).

• Voluntary intoxication (no defence, intent presumed) vs involuntary intoxication (defence).

• New offences: organised crime (s.111), petty organised crime (s.112), terrorist act (s.113), mob lynching (s.103(2)), snatching (s.304), hit and run (s.106(2)), deceitful sexual intercourse (s.69), acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity (s.152), hiring a child to commit an offence (s.95), causing grievous hurt resulting in a persistent vegetative state (s.117(3)).

• Dropped: sedition (IPC 124A), adultery (IPC 497), IPC 377, attempt to commit suicide (IPC 309, replaced by narrow s.226).

• New punishment: community service (six offences).

• Structural change: 511 sections to 358; common intention moved into s.3(5); general exceptions now ss.14-44; terrorism and organised crime inside ordinary penal law.

• Higher fines and minimum punishments; natural-life imprisonment wording; gang rape of a woman under 18 now death or natural-life imprisonment.

• Procedure: BNSS (CrPC), BSA (Evidence Act), in force from 1 July 2024.

• 7 and 12: age thresholds for immunity (s.20-21).

• 18: age of valid consent in s.25 and for rape; age for kidnapping: 16 (male), 18 (female).

• 5 or more: unlawful assembly, riot, dacoity; 2 or more: common intention, conspiracy, affray.

• 7 years: dowry death minimum and period after marriage; 20 days: grievous hurt test.

• 10 years: abetment of suicide maximum; rape minimum; attempt to murder maximum; 20 years: minimum for rape of a girl under 16 and for gang rape.

• 3 years: common maximum for theft; 5,000 rupees: community service threshold for theft; 1 to 7 years: petty organised crime.

• 10 to 20 years: NDPS commercial quantity; fine 1 to 2 lakh.

• 14 years: remission rule for life convicts (CrPC 433A).

• Read qualifiers: words like "only", "always", "must", "not necessarily" often make a statement wrong.

• Anchor on the section number first (BNS vs IPC) and check whether the option mixes them.

• For case-law questions, link each case to its single key principle and year; examiners often swap similar cases.

• For punishment questions, recall ladders (e.g., rape 10-life; under 16: 20-life; under 12: 20-life or death).

• When two statements look correct, check the exceptions (e.g., private defence cannot extend to death in property cases unless the listed offences exist).

• Update check: the BNS, BNSS and BSA are new; when an option cites an IPC section, the examiner may still expect the IPC answer, so study both numbers.

Sources: statutory text of the BNS 2023, BNSS 2023 and NDPS Act 1985, standard commentaries and Supreme Court judgments cited above. These notes were prepared from memory without live lookups, so cross-check section numbers, punishments and any post-2024 developments against the bare Acts and the latest UGC NET notifications.