Vidhara

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

§331Punishment for house-trespass or house- breaking

(1) Whoever commits lurking house-trespass or house-breaking, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, and shall also be liable to fine.

(2) Whoever commits lurking house-trespass or house-breaking after sunset and before sunrise, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to fine.

(3) Whoever commits lurking house-trespass or house-breaking, in order to the committing of any offence punishable with imprisonment, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to fine; and if the offence intended to be committed is theft, the term of the imprisonment may be extended to ten years.

(4) Whoever commits lurking house-trespass or house-breaking after sunset and before sunrise, in order to the committing of any offence punishable with imprisonment, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to fine; and, if the offence intended to be committed is theft, the term of the imprisonment may be extended to fourteen years.

(5) Whoever commits lurking house-trespass, or house-breaking, having made preparation for causing hurt to any person, or for assaulting any person, or for wrongfully restraining any person, or for putting any person in fear of hurt or of assault or of wrongful restraint, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description or a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

(6) Whoever commits lurking house-trespass or house-breaking after sunset and before sunrise, having made preparation for causing hurt to any person or for assaulting any person, or for wrongfully restraining any person, or for putting any person in fear of hurt, or of assault, or of wrongful restraint, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to fourteen years, and shall also be liable to fine.

(7) Whoever, whilst committing lurking house-trespass or house-breaking, causes grievous hurt to any person or attempts to cause death or grievous hurt to any person, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

(8) If, at the time of the committing of lurking house-trespass or house-breaking after sunset and before sunrise, any person guilty of such offence shall voluntarily cause or attempt to cause death or grievous hurt to any person, every person jointly concerned in committing such lurking house-trespass or house-breaking after sunset and before sunrise, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

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Source & version

Official text: Gazette of India via MHA (official)

Official Gazette text: The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (45 of 2023), English PDF as hosted by Ministry of Home Affairs (mha.gov.in, file 250883_english_01042024.pdf; canonical mirror indiacode.nic.in bitstream a202345.pdf). Extracted via pdftotext 26.07 -layout and @nexlex/ingest gazette-pdf parser on 2026-07-14. Automated parse; structural validation + spot verification of sections 1, 63, 103, 302, 358; full clause-level proofread pending.

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