1. The Law Changed — Did You Know?

On 1 July 2024, the Indian Penal Code, 1860 — a statute that governed Indian criminal law for 163 years — was formally repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023. This was not a minor amendment. The entire structure of substantive criminal law was rewritten, renumbered, and reorganised.

The most disorienting consequence for practitioners, police, and citizens alike is that not a single IPC section number survived. The provision that every Indian knew as Section 302 — murder — is now Section 103. The provision colloquially synonymous with fraud — Section 420 — is now Section 318(4). The most litigated provision in district courts across India — Section 498A on cruelty by husband — is now Section 85.

The transition created an immediate practical problem. Courts began returning charge sheets citing wrong sections. Police officers filed FIRs under repealed provisions. Families of accused persons received documents they could not interpret. Law students preparing for exams found their section-number memory rendered obsolete overnight.

2. What the Tool Is

The IPC ↔ BNS Section Finder is a free standalone interactive tool hosted at cybercops.in/ipc-bns-finder/. It requires no login, no registration, and no payment. It works on any mobile phone, tablet, or desktop browser. It is built and maintained by CYBER COPS India, verified against the BNS 2023 bare act (Act 45 of 2023) as notified in the Gazette of India, and updated in phases as new features are added.

The tool currently maps 143 provisions — covering offences against human body, property, state, women and children, public tranquility, public servants, documents and electronic records, defamation and speech, General Exceptions, new BNS provisions with no IPC equivalent, and sections omitted from BNS following Supreme Court judgments.

3. Feature 1 — Search by IPC Section Number

If you know the old IPC section number and want to find where it now sits in the BNS, use the first search box labelled Search by IPC Section.

The tool instantly shows you the corresponding BNS section, what it covers, the punishment range under the BNS, and the bail status. Below the search box you will see clickable hint pills — 302 · 420 · 498A · 376 · 304A · 120B — which trigger the search with one tap. These are the most frequently searched IPC sections.

4. Feature 2 — Search by BNS Section Number

If you have received a charge sheet or FIR dated after 1 July 2024 and it cites a BNS section number you do not recognise, use the second search box labelled Search by BNS Section.

The tool shows you which IPC provision it replaced, what it covers, and the full details — punishment, bail status, and key changes from the IPC original.

5. Feature 3 — Search by Keyword

This is the most powerful search mode for anyone who does not know section numbers. Use the third search box and type any word describing the offence or topic.

Every provision where that keyword appears — in the section title, the offence description, the punishment, or the key change column — appears in one flat table. The keyword search also works in Hindi when हि mode is active.

6. Feature 4 — Punishment Ranges

Every section in the tool shows the punishment range under BNS — the current applicable punishment. This includes:

• Minimum sentence where prescribed — shown in amber
• Maximum sentence — the ceiling a court may impose
• Fine amounts — including specific rupee figures where BNS prescribes them
• Death penalty provisions — highlighted in red (BNS §103, §396, §364A and others)
• Life imprisonment — shown in bold
• Community service — flagged where BNS explicitly provides for it as an alternative

7. Feature 5 — Bail Status

Every section shows whether the offence is Bailable or Non-Bailable — sourced from the First Schedule of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) 2023.

Each section also shows whether the offence is Cognizable — police can arrest without a warrant — or Non-Cognizable — a warrant is required before arrest.

8. Feature 6 — Seven Instant Filters

Above the results table, seven filter buttons allow you to narrow the entire dataset with one click:

What each filter shows

• All Sections — returns to the full category-grouped view of all 143 sections
• Non-Bailable — only sections where bail requires court intervention. Useful for lawyers assessing which charges in a multi-section FIR are bail-restricting
• Bailable — only sections where bail can be obtained at the police station
• Community Service Available — all sections where BNS provides community service as an alternative to imprisonment
• New in BNS — the 10 provisions that have no IPC equivalent, including mob lynching (§103(2)), organised crime (§111), terrorism (§113), sexual intercourse by false promise of marriage (§69), and snatching (§303(2))
• Changed — all sections where BNS made a material change from IPC — enhanced punishment, expanded scope, new sub-sections
• Omitted — the three IPC provisions not carried forward into BNS: §310 (Thug — archaic colonial provision), §377 (struck down — Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India, 2018), and §497 (struck down — Joseph Shine v. Union of India, 2018)

9. Feature 7 — Hindi Language Toggle

The tool supports full Hindi language display with a single click on the हि button in the language bar at the top of the page.

In Hindi mode, every section shows three layers simultaneously:

• English title — retained for reference
• Gazette  Official Gazette Hindi — the exact title as published in the BNS 2023 Hindi Gazette notification
• सरल  Simplified Hindi — plain language version for citizen accessibility

The Punishment column also switches to Hindi in हि mode. The Key Change column intentionally remains in English — it contains Supreme Court judgment references and technical legal observations that carry precise meaning and are best read in their original language.

10. Feature 8 — Shareable Deep Links

Every row in the search results has a 🔗 share button. Clicking it copies a direct URL to your clipboard — for example:

When someone opens that link on any device, the tool automatically searches for that section, highlights the row in amber, and scrolls to it. No searching required on the recipient’s end. A brief toast notification — “🔗 Link copied!” — confirms the copy was successful.

11. Feature 9 — Report an Error

At the bottom of every page, in the footer, you will find: Found an error? Report it →

Clicking this opens your email client with a pre-filled structured report template containing five fields:

• Section Number — which IPC or BNS section the error relates to
• Nature of Error — wrong mapping, incorrect punishment, wrong bail status, missing section, incorrect Hindi title
• Suggested Correction — what it should say instead
• Source / Reference — Gazette notification, bare act page, SC judgment, or other reference
• Your Name (optional)

The report automatically includes the build number, build date, page URL, and IST timestamp — so every report arrives with complete traceability information for the maintainer.

12. General Exceptions — Fully Mapped

One area often overlooked in IPC-BNS discussions is the General Exceptions chapter — the provisions that determine whether an act is a crime at all. These include the insanity defence, right of private defence, consent, duress, and necessity. All 21 General Exception provisions from IPC §§76–103 are mapped and searchable in the tool.

Search private defence, insanity, consent, or necessity in the keyword box to find all General Exception provisions instantly.

13. Five Real-World Use Cases

14. The Transition Rule — Which Law Applies

One question the tool cannot answer for you but every visitor should know:

This is mandated by Section 531 of the BNSS 2023 — the savings clause — and is not optional. The tool serves both scenarios — use the IPC search box for pre-July 2024 cases and the BNS search box for post-July 2024 cases.