Section 103: Punishment for Murder
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita • Chapter VI: Of Offences Affecting the Human Body • Official Statutory Text & Legal Guide
Chapter VI: Of Offences Affecting the Human Body
Court of Session
Non-Bailable
Cognizable
Formerly Sec 302 IPC
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 103
Section 103 prescribes the punishment for Murder, codifying capital sentencing standards under sub-section (1) while introducing an explicit, landmark penal clause against Mob Lynching under sub-section (2).
This section establishes supreme penal deterrence for murder, enforcing capital sentencing standards while prescribing collective, aggravated liability for hate-driven mob lynching.
Sub-section (2) introduces a historic legislative reform specifically targeting mob lynching and hate-driven group homicides. When a group of five or more persons acting in concert commits murder on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief or any other similar ground, each member of such group shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life, and fine.
Section 103 represents a dual triumph of sentencing jurisprudence. While sub-section (1) preserves four decades of settled Supreme Court capital jurisprudence, sub-section (2) removes evidentiary ambiguities in mob lynching trials by imposing joint, constructive capital liability on all five or more persons acting in concert on discriminatory grounds.