Indian Penal Code 1860
Also called: IPC · Topic: Europeans in India and the Rise of Company Rule · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Indian Penal Code (IPC) was India's main criminal code. It is a single law listing crimes and their punishments. The First Law Commission under Thomas B. Macaulay drafted it in the 1830s. It was passed in 1860 and came into force in 1862. It applied the same criminal law across British India, in place of the many older local and religious rules.
Example
The IPC defined crimes such as theft, murder and cheating, with a fixed punishment for each. In 1870 the British added a section on sedition (Section 124A), which was later used against nationalist leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The IPC stayed in use after Independence until the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replaced it on 1 July 2024.
Don't confuse with
- Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC): it sets out how a criminal case is run, including arrest, trial and appeal. The IPC said what counts as a crime and its punishment.
Related concepts
- Charles Metcalfe
- Warren Hastings
- Regulating Act 1773
- Supreme Court at Calcutta 1774
- Pitt's India Act 1784
- Impeachment of Warren Hastings
- Cornwallis Code 1793
- Charter Act 1793
- Covenanted civil service
- Fort William College