Use Of Community Service As A Penalty Under Section 4 Of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
- IJLLR Journal
- Nov 3, 2025
- 1 min read
Priyanshi Chaudhary, Symbiosis Law School, Noida
“Justice need not always be served behind the bars, sometimes it holds a broom, a book, or a helping hand to restore the disrupted harmony in society.” India follows the system of retributive and reformative justice, which aims to punish for wrongdoings, and rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders and convicts into the society. Community service has been introduced as a punishment for offenders under section 4 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 in clause (f). It is a kind of punishment that requires convicts and offenders to perform service for the society or in simpler terms, undertake unpaid work for the benefit of the society at large. This reform is the first Indian statutory recognition of community service as an alternative penalty, depicting the inclination of Indian criminal laws towards reformative justice. Allowing offenders to contribute positively to the very society they harmed balances accountability and rehabilitation. Prior to the new criminal laws, only section 18(1)(c) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, permitted community service as a type of punishment for child offenders. Moreover, the Courts have on several occasions, under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which provides the High Courts with the authority to provide complete justice, sentenced accused and convicts to specified hours of community service, on case-to-case basis. Although a new introduction to the legislation, it is not a new concept.
In section 4 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, there are six categories of punishments available to courts to hold offenders liable; (a) death, (b) life imprisonment, (c) rigorous and simple imprisonment, (d) forfeiture of property, (e) fine, and (f) community service.
