BNS Section 208: Non-Attendance in Obedience to an Order From a Public Servant (IPC 174 Mapping) (2026)

Explainer · Criminal Law · BNS

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

Section 208 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) punishes a person who fails to attend in obedience to a lawful summons, notice or order from a public servant. It is the new home of the offence that lawyers knew as Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The punishment has two levels, and it rises when a court is involved. If you searched for "BNS Section 208" expecting something else, remember that the BNS renumbered the old code, so the number alone can mislead. This explainer sets out what Section 208 covers, the two punishment levels, how it maps to the old law, and the classification. Last verified October 2026.

01Why the number trips people up

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) replaced the Indian Penal Code (IPC) from 1 July 2024 and renumbered almost every offence. So the IPC number you remember rarely points to the same provision in the BNS.

Section 208 is one such case. In the BNS it sits in the chapter on contempts of the lawful authority of public servants. It punishes a person who, after being lawfully ordered to attend, does not turn up. Reading the new number correctly matters, because a charge for conduct on or after 1 July 2024 is drawn under the BNS and cites Section 208, not the old IPC number.

02What Section 208 covers

Section 208 of the BNS punishes a person who is legally bound to attend, in person or by an agent, at a certain place and time, in obedience to a summons, notice, order or proclamation from a public servant who is legally competent to issue it, and who then intentionally:

• fails to attend at that place and time; or
• departs from the place before the time at which he is lawfully allowed to leave.

This is the everyday offence behind a witness or party who ignores a court summons, or who leaves before being released. It protects the ability of courts and public servants to require people to appear and to stay.

03Key ingredients

To bring a case under Section 208, the prosecution must show:

• A legal duty to attend: the accused was legally bound to attend in person or by agent, at a stated place and time;
• A lawful order: the duty arose from a summons, notice, order or proclamation of a competent public servant;
• Intentional failure: the accused intentionally failed to attend, or left before the time he was allowed to leave.

The punishment depends on the source of the duty. If the attendance was required in a court of justice, the higher level applies.

04Old to new: IPC 174 to BNS 208

Section 174 of the IPC is now Section 208 of the BNS. The offence is carried over, with the fine amounts expressed in current figures.

Because the structure is carried forward, older judgments on Section 174 of the IPC continue to guide how Section 208 is read.

05Punishment and classification

Section 208 sets two levels of punishment:

• General case: simple imprisonment for a term up to one month, or a fine up to five thousand rupees, or both.
• Where a court is involved: if the summons, notice or order required attendance in person or by agent in a court of justice, simple imprisonment up to six months, or a fine up to ten thousand rupees, or both.

On classification, the offence under Section 208 is:

• Non-cognizable: the police generally need the order of a Magistrate to investigate.
• Bailable: bail is a matter of right, subject to conditions.
• Triable by any Magistrate.

06What changed from the old law

For this offence, the change is mostly the number and the updated fine figures, now stated as five thousand and ten thousand rupees. The conduct, the two-level structure, and the intention requirement are carried over from Section 174 of the IPC, so the settled case law continues to apply.

The practical point is the transition. A charge for conduct on or after 1 July 2024 reads Section 208 of the BNS, while an older matter keeps its IPC 174 tag, because the law that applies is the law on the date of the offence.

07Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

Non-attendance usually shows up inside a bigger case, when a witness or party ignores a summons, so counsel need to know how courts have dealt with it before. Claw draws on more than 30 crore judgments and returns a search in under 5 seconds, with coverage running from the Supreme Court of 1950 and the High Courts of 1990. You can pull the rulings on a skipped appearance, or follow a live matter through its hearings and orders across the 9,102 courts, benches and forums Claw tracks.

Claw does not use customer case documents to train its AI models. Sign up for a free Claw account to trace a Section 208 matter by party name or by the advocate on record, and to keep watch as it is heard. For a sweep across the entire body of reported law, see case search across Indian courts.

08Sources and further reading

• India Code (official text of the BNS, 2023): indiacode.nic.in
• PRS Legislative Research (BNS overview and IPC comparison): prsindia.org
• Section 208, BNS (bare text): devgan.in
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This explainer is general information, not legal advice. The law changes through amendments and judgments, so check the current text and take advice from counsel before you act.

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