BNS Section 268: Personation Of Assessor

Definition of BNS Section 268

Section 268 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 states:

“Whoever, by personation or otherwise, shall intentionally cause, or knowingly suffer himself to be returned, empanelled or sworn as an assessor in any case in which he knows that he is not entitled by law to be so returned, empanelled or sworn, or knowing himself to have been so returned, empanelled or sworn contrary to law, shall voluntarily serve as such assessor, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”

Explanation and Illustration of BNS Section 268

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

Offence

In very basic terms, an assessor is a person who assists a judge in assessing a case, studying its evidence, and even arriving at a conclusion. They are usually persons who are not in the legal profession and are either representatives of the general public or experts whose knowledge and expertise is key to deciding on a case. A juror or a jury falls under the board definition of an assessor. However, since the jury system has been scrapped under the Indian judicial system, the use of assessors has become rare and very specific. They are highly specialised people who have to match certain criteria to qualify as an assessor in a case.

Section 268 provides for the crime of impersonating an assessor by falsely representing those qualifications and making dishonest claims of having met the qualifying criteria. According to this section, a person shall be declared an offender if he or she takes oath as an assessor in a case despite knowing that he or she:

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