Mob Lynching Under The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: A Critical Appraisal Of Sections 103(2) And 117(4)
- IJLLR Journal
- 4 days ago
- 1 min read
Trishala Pathak, LL.M. (Human Rights and Duties Education), Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
ABSTRACT
The enactment of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 marks an important development in India's criminal-law response to specified forms of collective identity-based violence. Sections 103(2) and 117(4) introduce specialised provisions concerning group-based murder and grievous hurt where five or more persons act in concert on specified or similar identity-related grounds. This article critically examines the scope, statutory ingredients and limitations of these provisions. It analyses the significance of the five-person threshold, the expression “acting in concert”, the identity-based requirement and the relationship between individual criminal responsibility and collective violence. It further situates the BNS provisions within the constitutional framework of Articles 14 and 21 and the preventive, remedial and punitive jurisprudence developed in Tehseen S. Poonawalla v. Union of India1. The article also examines relevant investigative and evidentiary mechanisms under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. It argues that the BNS strengthens substantive criminalisation but does not, by itself, constitute a complete anti-lynching framework. Effective implementation requires institutional capacity, evidence-sensitive investigation, victim and witness protection, preventive mechanisms and periodic evaluation of the statutory framework.
