Indian Penal Code, 1860 · Chapter V: Of Abetment
Section 119: Public servant concealing design to commit offence which it is his duty to prevent
The Indian Penal Code, 1860 was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 from 1 July 2024. It still applies to offences and proceedings from before that date.
Whoever, being a public servant intending to facilitate or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby facilitate the commission of an offence which it is his duty as such public servant to prevent, [voluntarily conceals, by any act or illegal omission or by the use of encryption or any other information hiding tool, the existence of a design] to commit such offence or makes any representation which he knows to be false respecting such design, if offence be committed.—shall, if the offence be committed, be punished with imprisonment of any description provided for the offence, for a term which may extend to one-half of the longest term of such imprisonment, or with such fine as is provided for that offence, or with both; if offence be punishable with death, etc.—or, if the offence be punishable with death or [imprisonment for life], with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years; if offence be not committed.—or, if the offence be not committed, shall be punished with imprisonment of any description provided for the offence for a term which may extend to one-fourth part of the longest term of such imprisonment or with such fine as is provided for the offence, or with both.
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 (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. 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.
Supreme Court judgments citing the section 119
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Sukhdev Yadav @ Pehalwan v. State of (NCT of Delhi) & Others
Whether, an accused/convict who has completed his “life imprisonment for a fixed term” such as twenty years of actual sentence without remission, as in the instant case, is entitled to be released from prison on…
- Motamarri Appanna Veerraju @ Mav Raju v. The State of West Bengal