Crime: nature, definition and kinds; "offence" under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
LUG-106 Substantial Law of Crimes-I (The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 - I), Unit I: Nature, definition and types of crimes. · LLB · 60 min
What a crime is and why jurists have found it so hard to define; how the Sanhita side-steps the problem with the word "offence" (s. 2(24)); crime as a public wrong and how it differs from a tort or a breach of contract; the classifications a first-year student must know (cognizable, bailable, compoundable, the chapters of the BNS, mala in se and mala prohibita); and how the BNS of 2023 replaced the Penal Code of 1860. Two past papers asked this topic directly (2024-25 Q2(c), 2025-26 Q5(c)).
Objectives
- Explain the leading juristic definitions of crime and why each is incomplete
- State how the BNS defines "offence" in s. 2(24) and what s. 3(1) and s. 3(2) add
- Distinguish a crime from a civil wrong on parties, purpose, procedure, proof, remedy and compromise
- Classify offences as the BNSS First Schedule and the chapters of the BNS do
- Describe the BNS as the successor of the IPC and list the main changes
Slides
- What is a crime? Six definitions and why none is complete
- "Offence" in the Sanhita: s. 2(24) and s. 3(1)-(2)
- The nature of a crime: a public wrong punished by the State
- Crime and civil wrong distinguished
- The same act as a crime and a civil wrong
- Kinds of crime I: history, mala in se, and the BNSS classification
- Kinds of crime II: offences by the chapters of the BNS
- The BNS as the successor of the IPC: 1860 to 2023
- A critical look: is "a thing made punishable" a definition at all?
- How the examiner asks it
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