BNS Section 251: Offering Gift Or Restoration Of Property In Consideration Of Screening Offender

Definition of BNS Section 251

Section 251 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 states:

“Whoever gives or causes, or offers or agrees to give or cause, any gratification to any person, or restores or causes the restoration of any property to any person, in consideration of that person’s concealing an offence, or of his screening any person from legal punishment for any offence, or of his not proceeding against any person for the purpose of bringing him to legal punishment shall,––

(a) if the offence is punishable with death, be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine;

(b) if the offence is punishable with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment which may extend to ten years, be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to fine;

(c) if the offence is punishable with imprisonment not extending to ten years, be punished with imprisonment of the description provided for the offence for a term which may extend to one-fourth part of the longest term of imprisonment provided for the offence, or with fine, or with both.

Exception.—The provisions of this section and section 250 do not extend to any case in which the offence may lawfully be compounded.”

Explanation and Illustration of Section 251

This section is applicable to any person within the sovereign borders of India, whether citizen, resident or otherwise. It deals with the offence of failure to assist a public servant. Let us break down the section to get a better understanding of it.

Offence

This section is supplementary to Section 250. As per section 250, if anyone offers to protect a person wanted for a crime from being apprehended by the authorities in return for remuneration or consideration, then such person shall be considered an offender under the provisions of this section. Section 251 states that anyone who offers to remunerate a person in return for protection from criminal prosecution shall be considered an offender. The person making the offer may be the criminal or someone who wants to protect the criminal.

In simple words, if one person protects an offender from prosecution in return for remuneration or consideration, and the other person accepts the remuneration and proceeds to perform actions that shield the offender from prosecution, the person who agrees to protect the offender in return forconsideration shall be punished under Section 250, while the person who pays for such protection shall be punished under Section 251.

The section highlights three specific types of actions that shall be considered as an offence under this section:

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