Section 106(2) BNS Explained — Hit and Run, Negligent Driving, and the Duty to Report (India)

This article is for educational and legal awareness purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice or solicitation. Please consult a qualified advocate for advice on specific legal matters.

Overview

Road accidents involving death are dealt with under a provision that most drivers, transporters, and even many legal practitioners still associate with a single number — Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), the general criminal code that replaced the Indian Penal Code, 1860 with effect from 1 July 2024. Section 106 actually has two distinct sub-sections with two very different practical statuses. Sub-section (1) deals with ordinary death by rash or negligent act and has been in force since 1 July 2024. Sub-section (2) — the provision that specifically targets a driver who causes a fatal accident and then flees without reporting it — has not been brought into force. It was carved out of the commencement notification after nationwide protests by truck and transport operators in January 2024, and it remains unnotified as of the most recent judicial confirmation in July 2026.

This article sets out the exact text of both sub-sections, explains why Section 106(2) is not currently operative law, traces how courts have treated the gap, and clarifies the separate, pre-existing duty on every driver to report an accident under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

Statutory Framework — Section 106, BNS, 2023

Section 106 falls in Chapter VI (“Of Offences Affecting the Human Body”) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and is titled “Causing death by negligence.”

Section 106(1) — General Negligence Causing Death

Section 106(1) provides:

“Whoever causes death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide, 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 such act is done by a registered medical practitioner while performing medical procedure, he shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

This is the direct successor to Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, which punished the same conduct with imprisonment “which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.” Section 106(1) has increased the maximum term from two years to five years and made a fine mandatory alongside imprisonment (rather than an alternative to it), and it adds a separate, lighter two-year cap for registered medical practitioners acting in the course of a medical procedure — a carve-out that did not exist under Section 304A IPC.

Section 106(2) — The Hit-and-Run Provision

Section 106(2) is a genuinely new sub-section with no direct predecessor in the IPC. It provides:

“Whoever causes death of any person by rash and negligent driving of vehicle not amounting to culpable homicide, and escapes without reporting it to a police officer or a Magistrate soon after the incident, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description of a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Two elements must both be present for this enhanced offence: (i) death caused by rash or negligent driving of a vehicle, and (ii) the driver escaping the scene without reporting the incident to a police officer or Magistrate soon after. The maximum sentence — ten years — is double that under Section 106(1), and the reporting failure is what converts an ordinary negligence case into this aggravated offence. In other words, the duty to report is not a separate obligation bolted onto Section 106(2) — it is written into the ingredients of the offence itself.

The Notification Controversy — Why Section 106(2) Is Not in Force

The BNS, along with the other two new criminal codes, was notified to commence on 1 July 2024. However, the Government of India’s notification excluded Section 106(2) from that commencement: it stated that the provisions of the BNS, 2023, except Section 106(2), would come into force from 1 July 2024, pursuant to a notification dated 23 February 2024.

The exclusion followed a three-day nationwide protest by truck, bus, and tanker drivers and transport operators in late January 2024, who objected to the severity of the ten-year term and the fine attached to Section 106(2). Following talks with the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), the Union Government assured transporters that Section 106(2) would be implemented only after further consultation with stakeholders. Section 106(1) was unaffected by this exclusion and commenced normally on 1 July 2024, along with the rest of the BNS.

Current status: As of the most recent judicial reference located for this article — a Delhi High Court order dated 15 July 2026 dismissing a public interest litigation that sought a direction to enforce Section 106(2) — the provision remains unnotified and has not been brought into force. Readers should treat any claim that Section 106(2) has since been notified with caution and verify the current position against the Ministry of Home Affairs’ official notifications before relying on it, since a provision’s commencement status can change and this article reflects the position as verified at the time of writing.

Judicial Treatment of the Unnotified Provision

Two court proceedings illustrate how the gap between the enacted text and its non-commencement has been handled:

Gauhati High Court, December 2024 — The Court directed the Director General of Police, Assam, to issue instructions to police stations not to register cases under Section 106(2) BNS, noting that the provision had not been brought into force despite the notification excluding it. The Court observed that persons against whom such cases had improperly been registered could pursue remedies before the competent courts.
Delhi High Court, July 2026 — The Court dismissed a PIL that sought a direction compelling the Central Government to notify and enforce Section 106(2), holding that the decision on whether and when to bring a statutory provision into force lies exclusively within the domain of the Central Government’s rule-making discretion, and declining to issue any mandamus on the point.

Read together, these orders confirm the same underlying position from two different High Courts, roughly eighteen months apart: Section 106(2) exists on the statute book but has no legal force until the Central Government chooses to notify it, and courts have declined to compel that notification.

The Duty to Report — Section 106(2) BNS Is Not the Only Source

Because Section 106(2) is not in force, a driver who causes a fatal accident and leaves the scene without reporting it cannot currently be charged under Section 106(2) — that enhanced, ten-year offence is simply not available to prosecutors while the provision remains unnotified. This does not mean there is no legal duty to report an accident. A separate, long-standing obligation exists under Section 134 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which is fully in force and independent of the BNS notification status.

Section 134 requires the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident causing injury or damage to, among other things, secure medical attention for the injured (unless impracticable due to circumstances such as mob violence) and give information about the accident on demand to a police officer at the scene, or, if no police officer is present, report the circumstances of the occurrence at the nearest police station as soon as possible, and in any case within twenty-four hours of the occurrence.

The practical position, therefore, is layered:

Causing death by rash or negligent driving remains an offence under Section 106(1) BNS (up to five years plus fine), regardless of whether the driver later reports the accident.
The specific enhanced offence for escaping without reporting — Section 106(2) BNS, carrying up to ten years — is not currently available to prosecutors because the provision has not been notified.
The duty to report an accident within 24 hours under Section 134 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 continues to apply and is unaffected by the BNS notification gap; failure to comply attracts consequences under the Motor Vehicles Act separately.
Other generally applicable provisions — for example, those dealing with causing evidence to disappear or providing false information to screen an offender — may also be relevant on the facts of a given case, independent of Section 106(2).

Practical Points

A driver, transporter, or member of the public should not assume that the “hit and run” ten-year provision reported widely in the press is currently operative law; as verified for this article, it is not.
The absence of Section 106(2) does not remove liability for the underlying negligent driving causing death, which is squarely punishable under Section 106(1) BNS.
The duty to report an accident to the police within 24 hours under Section 134 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 is unaffected by the BNS notification status and continues to bind every driver involved in an accident causing injury or death.
Because a provision’s commencement status is a matter of executive notification and can change, anyone relying on Section 106(2) BNS — whether for compliance, litigation, or reporting — should check the latest Ministry of Home Affairs notification before proceeding, rather than relying on the date of this article.
A person facing a case registered, or proposed to be registered, under Section 106(2) BNS may wish to consult a qualified advocate regarding the provision’s current enforceability.

Takeaway

Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 contains two sub-sections with different legal status. Section 106(1), covering ordinary death by negligence, has been in force since 1 July 2024 and increased the maximum sentence from the two years available under the erstwhile Section 304A IPC to five years. Section 106(2), the hit-and-run provision carrying up to ten years for a driver who causes death and escapes without reporting it, was excluded from that commencement following transporters’ protests and, per the most recent judicial confirmation located (a Delhi High Court order of July 2026), remains unnotified. Until it is notified, the enhanced offence under Section 106(2) is not available, though the underlying negligent-driving offence under Section 106(1) and the independent 24-hour accident-reporting duty under Section 134 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 both continue to apply in full.

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