BNS Section 183: Effacing Writing From Substance Bearing Government Stamp, Or Removing From Document A Stamp Used For It, With Intent To Cause Loss To Government

Definition of BNS Section 183

Section 183 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 states:
“Whoever, fraudulently or with intent to cause loss to the Government, removes or effaces from any substance, bearing any stamp issued by Government for the purpose of revenue, any writing or document for which such stamp has been used, or removes from any writing or document a stamp which has been used for such writing or document, in order that such stamp may be used for a different writing or document, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”

Explanation and Illustration of BNS Section 183

This section deals more specifically with revenue stamps. Revenue stamps are often purchased and affixed over documents that require a tax / cess / duty to be paid for the registration and execution of the document to indicate that the applicable dues have been deposited with the government treasury. However, since these stamps are removable, it might encourage some people to efface these stamps from their intended, original document and reuse them on other similar documents in order to save costs.

For instance a person may buy two apartments and get the registration done for one property. He may then efface the stamp applied on the registered documents and apply them on the documents of the unregistered papers and photocopy them, making it appear that registration duty on both apartments has been paid.

However, this is a denial of revenue due to the government and affects the overall economy. Besides, non-payment of applicable duty to save costs falls under the same umbrella as tax evasion. This section lays out the provisions for such an offence.

The punishment for such an offence can be

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