Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 · Chapter XVII: Of Offences against Property · Of mischief
Section 326: Mischief by injury, inundation, fire or explosive substance, etc
In plain words
This section sets higher punishments for serious kinds of mischief.
- Reducing water supply for farming, drinking, cleanliness or manufacture: up to five years, or a fine, or both.
- Making a public road, bridge or navigable river or channel impassable or less safe: up to five years, or a fine, or both.
- Causing a flood or blocking public drainage with damage: up to five years, or a fine, or both.
- Destroying, moving or spoiling signs or signals used for rail, air or sea navigation: up to seven years, or a fine, or both. A land-mark fixed by a public servant: up to one year, or a fine, or both.
- Using fire or explosives to damage property, including crops: up to seven years and a fine.
- Using fire or explosives to destroy a place of worship, a home, or a building for keeping property: imprisonment for life or up to ten years, and a fine.
A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.
Official text
Whoever commits mischief by,—-
(a) doing any act which causes, or which he knows to be likely to cause, a diminution of the supply of water for agricultural purposes, or for food or drink for human beings or for animals which are property, or for cleanliness or for carrying on any manufacture, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both;
(b) doing any act which renders or which he knows to be likely to render any public road, bridge, navigable river or navigable channel, natural or artificial, impassable or less safe for travelling or conveying property, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both;
(c) doing any act which causes or which he knows to be likely to cause an inundation or an obstruction to any public drainage attended with injury or damage, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both;
(d) destroying or moving any sign or signal used for navigation of rail, aircraft or ship or other thing placed as a guide for navigators, or by any act which renders any such sign or signal less useful as a guide for navigators, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both;
(e) destroying or moving any land-mark fixed by the authority of a public servant, or by any act which renders such land-mark less useful as such, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both;
(f) fire or any explosive substance intending to cause, or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby cause, damage to any property including agricultural produce, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine;
(g) fire or any explosive substance, intending to cause, or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby cause, the destruction of any building which is ordinarily used as a place of worship or as a human dwelling or as a place for the custody of property, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Corresponding sections were matched by comparing the wording of both official texts, and for the IPC and BNS, also against a published correspondence table. Wording, punishments and structure often changed, so read both sections before relying on the match.
Source: India Code (indiacode.gov.in), the consolidated text published by the Legislative Department, Government of India. Text as updated on India Code on 25 August 2026. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.
Supreme Court judgments citing the section 326
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IN RE: DIRECTIONS IN THE MATTER OF DEMOLITION OF STRUCTURES versus
Whether the executive should be permitted to take away the shelter of a family or families as a measure for infliction of penalty on a person who is accused in a crime. In other words, whether properties of persons, who…