Institute of Legal and Management Studies

Former Chief Justice of India UU Lalit today raised concerns over the absence of guidelines for awarding community service as a punishment under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

Justice Lalit was delivering a lecture organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association on “BNS 2023 and IPC 1860: Continuity, Change and Challenges.”

Giving an example, Justice Lalit noted that punishment for defamation under section 356(2) of BNS, could be up to two years of imprisonment, or fine, or both, or community service. “But there are no guidelines as to how much community service. If it is two years of prison does it mean two years of community service?” he asked.

He questioned the nature and extent of such punishment. “What kind of community service? Is it something like Kar Seva in your Gurudwara? How much time a day? Two hours, four hours, six hours, or eight hours? And what is the measure? If the judge were to grant three days of community service, going by the law it is absolutely correct.”

Pointing out that the provision is left to the discretion of judges, Justice Lalit remarked, “There are no guidelines when it comes to this logic of granting community service as a punishment. This is essentially at a very ad hoc level and purely left to the discretion of the convicting judge or the punishment judge.”

He called for clear legislative guidelines rather than leaving it to discretion of judges.

“There should be clear cut guidelines as to what is the measure. If it is given as an alternative to imprisonment then how much of community service? We should have some kind of principles coming forth through the legislature rather than leaving it to the individual judges going by their own discretion and their own idea of what is fair and just”, he said.

On the overall structure of the new penal code, Justice Lalit said that though it introduced some changes, it has retained much of the principles and logic of the India Penal Code, 1860.

“Perhaps rightly so, because this country has got used to 186 years of IPC holding the fort. Your ethos cannot change overnight. We can make certain changes in the right direction and perhaps wait for the time to introduce some other changes. So it is a good beginning which has been made by the legislature”, he said.