Scope, Law Used and Exam Pattern

• 358 sections in 20 Chapters; the IPC had 511 sections in 23 Chapters.

• Chapter I = preliminary and definitions (s.1-3; s.2 is the definitions section); Chapter II = punishments (s.4-13); Chapter III = general exceptions (s.14-44); Chapter IV = abetment, criminal conspiracy and attempt (s.45-62); Chapter V = offences against women and children (s.63-99); Chapter VI = offences affecting the human body (s.100-146); Chapter VII = offences against the State (s.147-158); Chapter VIII = offences relating to the Army, Navy and Air Force (s.159-168); Chapter IX = offences relating to elections (s.169-177); Chapter X = coin, bank notes, currency notes and Government stamps (s.178-188); Chapter XI = offences against public tranquillity (s.189-197); Chapter XVII = offences against property (s.303-334).

• New offences added: 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)), sexual intercourse by deceitful means or false promise of marriage (s.69), and acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India (s.152).

• Removed or dropped: sedition (IPC 124A) (replaced in substance by s.152), adultery (IPC 497) (already struck down in Joseph Shine v. Union of India, 2018), unnatural offences (IPC 377) (consensual part read down in Navtej Singh Johar, 2018; BNS has no equivalent), and attempt to commit suicide (IPC 309) (replaced by a narrow s.226, attempt to commit suicide to compel or restrain a public servant, punished with community service).

• Community service is a new punishment (s.4(f)), provided for small offences such as petty theft, defamation, attempted suicide to coerce a public servant and public intoxication.

• Rape (s.63) is still a male-offender, female-victim offence; the age of consent stays at 18 years.

Check any section number you are unsure of against the bare Act before the exam.

• Unit IV is one of the ten units; expect roughly 8-12 questions out of 100 in Paper 2 (approximate; it varies by year).

• Question styles that dominate: statement-based ("which statements are correct"), match-the-following (offence with section, case with principle, case with offence), assertion-reason, chronological order, "which is NOT" negatives, and direct facts (punishment, age, number of persons).

• Recent trend: papers since mid-2024 add BNS-specific items (organised crime, mob lynching, snatching, hit and run, s.152, community service, deceitful-means sexual intercourse) alongside the steady classical core (mens rea, common intention versus common object, private defence, murder versus culpable homicide, theft versus extortion versus robbery, cheating versus criminal breach of trust).

• Study priority: topics 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 are the most question-dense; topic 7 is the most current-affairs heavy; topics 5, 8, 9 and 10 usually give 1-2 factual questions each.