Community service
Unpaid work that a Court orders a convict to perform, as a form of punishment that benefits the community. It is a new punishment under Section 4(f) of the BNS.
Explained
Community service is listed as a punishment in Section 4(f) of the BNS. It had no place in the list of punishments in Section 53 of the IPC, so it is one of the new features of the Sanhita. The BNS itself does not define the expression. The definition is in the Explanation to Section 23 of the BNSS: work which the Court may order a convict to perform as a form of punishment that benefits the community, for which he shall not be entitled to any remuneration.
Only a small number of offences prescribe it. They are a public servant unlawfully engaging in trade (Section 202), non-appearance in response to a proclamation under Section 84 of the BNSS (Section 209), attempt to commit suicide to compel or restrain a public servant from discharging official duty (Section 226), theft of property worth less than five thousand rupees by a first offender who returns the value or restores the property (proviso to Section 303(2)), misconduct in public by a drunken person (Section 355), and defamation (Section 356(2)). In the theft proviso community service is the mandatory punishment; elsewhere it is an alternative to imprisonment or fine.
Under Section 23 of the BNSS a Magistrate of the first class and a Magistrate of the second class may each pass a sentence of community service, in addition to their limits on imprisonment and fine. Section 8 of the BNS allows imprisonment in default of community service; where the offence is punishable with fine or community service, that imprisonment must be simple.
The term also appears elsewhere. Section 2(4A) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 defines community service as unpaid work required as punishment for an offence under that Act, and Section 18(1)(c) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 lets a Board order a child in conflict with law to perform community service. Examiners test the definition's location in the BNSS, the list of offences and the theft proviso.
What the law says
(f) Community Service.
Section 4(f) lists community service as a punishment
Earlier law: IPC 53. Punishments.
Explanation.—“Community service” shall mean the work which the Court may order a convict to perform as a form of punishment that benefits the community, for which he shall not be entitled to any remuneration.
Explanation defines community service; Magistrates' sentencing powers
Earlier law: CRPC 29. Sentences which Magistrates may pass.
Provided that in cases of theft where the value of the stolen property is less than five thousand rupees, and a person is convicted for the first time, shall upon return of the value of property or restoration of the stolen property, shall be punished with community service.
Proviso to Section 303(2) makes community service the punishment
Earlier law: IPC 378. Theft.
(2) Whoever defames another shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both, or with community service.
(3) Whoever prints or engraves any matter, knowing or having good reason to believe that such matter is defamatory of any person, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
(4) Whoever sells or offers for sale any printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter, knowing that it contains such matter, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
Defamation punishable with community service
Earlier law: IPC 499. Defamation.
(4) The imprisonment which the Court imposes in default of payment of a fine or in default of community service may be of any description to which the offender might have been sentenced for the offence.
(5) If the offence is punishable with fine or community service, the imprisonment which the Court imposes in default of payment of the fine or in default of community service shall be simple, and the term for which the Court directs the offender to be imprisoned, in default of payment of fine or in default of community service, shall not exceed,—
(a) two months when the amount of the fine does not exceed five thousand rupees;
Imprisonment in default of community service
Earlier law: IPC 63. Amount of fine; 64. Sentence of imprisonment for non-payment of fine.; 65. Limit to imprisonment for non-payment of fine, when imprisonment and fine awardable.; 66. Description of imprisonment for non-payment of fine.; 67. Imprisonment for non-payment of fine, when offence punishable with fine only.; 68. Imprisonment to terminate on payment of fine.; 69. Termination of imprisonment on payment of proportional part of fine.; 70. Fine leviable within six years, of during imprisonment. Death not to discharge property from liability.
[(4A) “community service” means an unpaid work which a person is required to perform as a punishment for an offence committed under this Act;]
Section 2(4A) defines community service under the MV Act
Example
For example, a first offender convicted of stealing goods worth three thousand rupees, who restores them, is punished with community service under the proviso to Section 303(2) of the BNS.
For the exam
- New punishment in Section 4(f) BNS; not found in Section 53 IPC.
- Defined in the Explanation to Section 23 BNSS, not in the BNS.
- Offences: Sections 202, 209, 226, 303(2) proviso, 355 and 356(2) BNS.
- Magistrates of the first and second class can sentence to community service.
- Default imprisonment for community service is simple where the offence carries fine or community service.
108 questions in the Law Maker question bank use this term. Practise Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita questions
Related terms
- TheftDishonestly moving movable property out of another person's possession, without that person's consent, in order to take it (Section 303(1) of the BNS).
- OffenceAn act or omission made punishable by law. The BNS core meaning is a thing made punishable by the Sanhita; the BNSS meaning covers any law in force.
- Public servantA person falling within the descriptions in Section 2(28) of the BNS, such as Judges, officers of the Government and Courts, and persons in the pay of the Government or a Government company.
- Child in conflict with lawUnder Section 2(13) of the JJ Act, 2015, a child alleged or found to have committed an offence who had not completed eighteen years on the date of the offence.
- Petty offenceFor Section 229 of the BNSS, an offence punishable only with fine not exceeding five thousand rupees, other than Motor Vehicles Act offences and offences under laws allowing conviction in absence on a guilty plea.
Further reading
Checked 6 November 2026. Statutory text is quoted from the Bare Acts library, taken from India Code. See the full glossary.