BNS Section 224: Threat of injury to a public servant (2026)

Explainer · Criminal Law · BNS

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

Section 224 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) punishes threatening a public servant to make that public servant do, or not do, an official act. The BNS has been in force since 1 July 2024 and replaces the Indian Penal Code (IPC). If you still look up "IPC 189", Section 224 is the provision you now need. This explainer sets out what Section 224 covers, how it maps to the old law, the punishment and the classification. Last verified October 2026.

01Why the section number matters now

Threatening a public servant to bend an official decision was punished under Section 189 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Since 1 July 2024 the IPC is replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), and this offence now sits in Section 224.

This matters in practice. A complaint for an offence committed on or after 1 July 2024 cites Section 224, not Section 189. Older matters keep their IPC number, because the law that applies is the law on the date of the offence. For some years both numbers will appear in live files.

02What Section 224 covers

Section 224 punishes a person who holds out a threat of injury to a public servant, or to a person the public servant is believed to be interested in, in order to make that public servant do any act, or to forbear or delay doing any act, connected with the exercise of the public functions of that public servant.

The aim of the section is to protect official decision making from pressure. It does not require that the threat succeeds. The offence is complete once the threat is held out for the forbidden purpose, whether or not the public servant actually gives in.

03Key ingredients

To make out an offence under Section 224, the prosecution must show:

• a threat of injury was held out by the accused;
• the threat was to a public servant, or to a person in whom that public servant is believed to be interested; and
• the purpose was to induce that public servant to do, or to forbear or delay doing, an act connected with the exercise of their public functions.

The link between the threat and the official act is central. A threat unconnected to any official function may be an offence under other provisions, but it is not an offence under Section 224.

04Old to new: IPC 189 to BNS 224

Section 189 of the IPC is now Section 224 of the BNS. The offence and its punishment are carried over.

05Punishment and classification

The punishment under Section 224 is imprisonment of either description for a term up to two years, or a fine, or both.

On classification, the offence under Section 224 is:

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

06What changed from the old law

For this offence, the change is almost entirely the section number. The ingredients, the link between the threat and an official act, and the punishment are carried over from IPC Section 189. So the older case law on Section 189 still guides how Section 224 of the BNS is read.

Where a threat is used not to pressure an official act but to give false evidence or to mislead an inquiry, different provisions apply, such as Section 227 of the BNS on giving false evidence.

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.

A Section 224 matter rises or falls on the facts of the threat and on the link courts have drawn to an official act. Claw opens 30 crore and more judgments to that question, including Supreme Court decisions since 1950 and High Court decisions since 1990, so you can see how the old Section 189 has been applied. It also tracks the cases, orders and hearing dates of a live matter across 9,102 courts, benches and forums, with each search answered in under 5 seconds.

Your material stays private: Claw does not use customer case documents to train its AI models. Start a free Claw account to read these rulings and to track a live matter by party or advocate name. For a broader sweep of the 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 224, 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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