Murder Under the BNS (Section 103): Punishment and the IPC 302 Mapping (2026)

Explainer · Criminal Law · BNS

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

Murder is punished under Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the new criminal code in force since 1 July 2024. Section 103 replaced Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The punishment is death or imprisonment for life, and a fine. If you still look up "section 302 IPC", this is the provision you now need. This explainer sets out what Section 103 covers, how it maps to the old law, the punishment, and what actually changed. Last verified October 2026.

01Why the section number matters now

For more than 160 years, "Section 302" meant murder. Charge sheets, bail orders, and everyday court talk all used that number. Since 1 July 2024 the number has changed. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), and murder now sits in Section 103.

This matters in practice. An FIR for an offence committed on or after 1 July 2024 is registered under the BNS, so it cites Section 103, not Section 302. An older case keeps its IPC number, because the law that applies is the law on the date of the offence. So for a while you will see both numbers in live matters, and you need to read each one correctly.

02What Section 103 covers

Section 103 of the BNS sets the punishment for murder. It does not define murder on its own. The definition sits one step earlier, in Section 101 of the BNS, which carries forward the old test: murder is culpable homicide that falls into one of the aggravated categories, unless one of the stated exceptions applies.

Section 103 has two parts:

• Section 103(1): the general offence of murder, punished with death or imprisonment for life, and a fine.
• Section 103(2): a new clause for murder by a group. When a group of five or more persons, acting together, commits murder on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief, or any similar ground, each member of the group faces death, or imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for not less than seven years, and a fine. This is the clause often linked to mob lynching.

03Key ingredients of murder

To prove murder, the prosecution must show a death caused by the accused, and the mental element that lifts the act from culpable homicide to murder. In plain terms, the act must fall into one of these states of mind:

• an intention to cause death;
• an intention to cause the kind of bodily injury the accused knows is likely to cause the death of that person;
• an intention to cause bodily injury that is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death; or
• knowledge that the act is so imminently dangerous that it must in all probability cause death, with no excuse for running that risk.

Even then, the act is not murder if a recognised exception applies, such as grave and sudden provocation, the right of private defence exceeded in good faith, or a sudden fight without premeditation. In those cases the offence drops to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

04Old to new: IPC 302 to BNS 103

Section 302 of the IPC is now Section 103(1) of the BNS. The core punishment, death or imprisonment for life and a fine, is carried over without change.

The real change is the addition of Section 103(2). Mob killings on identity grounds were earlier prosecuted using general murder and common-object provisions. The BNS now names this conduct as a distinct, specially punishable form of murder.

05Punishment and classification

The punishment under Section 103(1) is death or imprisonment for life, and a fine. Section 103(2) carries death, or imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for not less than seven years, with a fine.

On classification, murder under Section 103 is:

• Cognizable: the police can register an FIR and investigate without prior approval of a court.
• Non-bailable: bail is not a matter of right and is decided by the court.
• Triable by the Court of Session: it is one of the most serious offences in the code.

06What changed from the old law

For the common charge of murder, the change is mostly the number. The ingredients, the exceptions, and the punishment are the same, so decades of case law under Section 300 and Section 302 of the IPC still guide how Section 101 and Section 103 are read.

The substantive addition is Section 103(2), the group-murder clause. This is new text, not a renumbering, so there is little settled case law on it yet, and how courts apply it is worth watching. Related killings that are not murder, such as a death caused by a rash or negligent act, are covered by Section 106 of the BNS, and an attempt that falls short of death is covered by Section 109 of the BNS.

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 murder trial runs for years, through committal, charge, prosecution evidence, statement of the accused, and often appeal. Offences and procedure under Section 103 are charged and litigated in cases across India every day. Claw lets you search and track cases, orders and judgments by section, party or advocate across 9,102 courts, benches and forums, with 30 crore+ judgments and results in under 5 seconds. So you can pull how a particular Sessions court or High Court has read Section 101 and Section 103, or follow a live matter by party or advocate name.

Claw does not use customer case documents to train AI models. Create a FREE Claw account to search and track cases under this section by party or advocate name. To search the wider body of 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 103, 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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