Dishonestly
Also called: Dishonest intention
Doing anything with the intention of causing wrongful gain to one person or wrongful loss to another person (Section 2(7) of the BNS).
Explained
Section 2(7) of the BNS defines dishonestly as doing anything with the intention of causing wrongful gain to one person or wrongful loss to another person. It describes a state of mind, so the test is the intention with which the act is done, not whether gain or loss actually results. Earlier the definition stood in Section 24 of the IPC.
The definition works with three related clauses. Under Section 2(36), wrongful gain is gain by unlawful means of property to which the person gaining is not legally entitled. Under Section 2(37), wrongful loss is loss by unlawful means of property to which the person losing it is legally entitled. Section 2(38) adds that a person gains wrongfully when he retains wrongfully as well as when he acquires wrongfully, and loses wrongfully when he is wrongfully kept out of property as well as when he is wrongfully deprived of it. Since the definitions speak of property, dishonesty is concerned with economic or proprietary harm.
Dishonest intention is the mental element of the main property offences. Theft under Section 303 requires an intention to take movable property dishonestly; dishonest misappropriation is punished under Section 314; criminal breach of trust under Section 316 requires dishonest misappropriation, conversion, use or disposal of entrusted property; and cheating under Section 318 may be committed by fraudulently or dishonestly inducing delivery of property. Where a person acts under the terms of a contract or a bona fide claim of right, there is no wrongful gain or loss and so no dishonesty.
Examiners commonly test the difference between dishonestly and fraudulently. Fraudulently under Section 2(9) means doing anything with intent to defraud but not otherwise; it centres on deceit and need not involve property loss, while dishonestly turns on wrongful gain or loss of property. Match-the-following questions pairing these definitions are frequent.
What the law says
(7) “dishonestly” means doing anything with the intention of causing wrongful gain to one person or wrongful loss to another person;
Clause (7) defines dishonestly; clauses (36) to (38) define wrongful gain and loss
Earlier law: IPC 33. “Act”. “Omission”; 47. “Animal”.; New Sub-Section; 28. “Counterfeit”.; 20. “Court of Justice”.; 46. “Death”.; 24. “Dishonestly”.; 29. “Document”.; 25. “Fraudulently”; 8. Gender.; 52. “Good faith”; 17. “Government”.; 52A. “Harbour“.; 44. “Injury”.; 43. “Illegal”. “Legally bound to do”.; 19. “Judge”.; 45. “Life”.; 42. “Local law”.; 10. “Man”. “Woman”.; 49. “Year”. “Month”.; 22. “Movable property”; 9. Number.; 51. “Oath”.; 40. “Offence”.; 33. “Act”. “Omission”; 11. “Person”.; 12. “Public”.; 21. “Public servant”.; 26. “Reason to believe”
(1) Whoever, intending to take dishonestly any movable property out of the possession of any person without that person’s consent, moves that property in order to such taking, is said to commit theft.
Explanation 1.—A thing so long as it is attached to the earth, not being movable property, is not the subject of theft; but it becomes capable of being the subject of theft as soon as it is severed from the earth.
Explanation 2.—A moving effected by the same act which affects the severance may be a theft.
Theft requires intention to take property dishonestly
Earlier law: IPC 378. Theft.
(1) Whoever, being in any manner entrusted with property, or with any dominion over property, dishonestly misappropriates or converts to his own use that property, or dishonestly uses or disposes of that property in violation of any direction of law prescribing the mode in which such trust is to be discharged, or of any legal contract, express or implied, which he has made touching the discharge of such trust, or wilfully suffers any other person so to do, commits criminal breach of trust.
Explanation 1.—A person, being an employer of an establishment whether exempted under section 17 of the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (19 of 1952) or not who deducts the employee’s contribution from the wages payable to the employee for credit to a Provident Fund or Family Pension Fund established by any law for the time being in force, shall be deemed to have been entrusted with the amount of the contribution so deducted by him and if he makes default in the payment of such contribution to the said Fund in violation of the said law, shall be deemed to have dishonestly used the amount of the said contribution in violation of a direction of law as aforesaid.
Explanation 2.—A person, being an employer, who deducts the employees’ contribution from the wages payable to the employee for credit to the Employees’ State Insurance Fund held and administered by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation established under the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 (34 of 1948) shall be deemed to have been entrusted with the amount of the contribution so deducted by him and if he makes default in the payment of such contribution to the said Fund in violation of the said Act, shall be deemed to have dishonestly used the amount of the said contribution in violation of a direction of law as aforesaid.
Criminal breach of trust requires dishonest misappropriation or use
Earlier law: IPC 405. Criminal breach of trust.
(1) Whoever, by deceiving any person, fraudulently or dishonestly induces the person so deceived to deliver any property to any person, or to consent that any person shall retain any property, or intentionally induces the person so deceived to do or omit to do anything which he would not do or omit if he were not so deceived, and which act or omission causes or is likely to cause damage or harm to that person in body, mind, reputation or property, is said to cheat.
Explanation.—A dishonest concealment of facts is a deception within the meaning of this section.
Illustrations.
Cheating by fraudulently or dishonestly inducing delivery
Earlier law: IPC 415. Cheating.
Earlier law: Section 24, IPC
Example
For example, A finds a gold ring on a road, learns that it belongs to Z, and still keeps it for himself. He intends wrongful gain to himself and wrongful loss to Z, so he acts dishonestly and may be guilty of dishonest misappropriation under Section 314 of the BNS.
For the exam
- Section 2(7) BNS; earlier Section 24 IPC.
- Intention to cause wrongful gain to one or wrongful loss to another is enough; either limb suffices.
- Wrongful retention is wrongful gain; being kept out of property is wrongful loss (Section 2(38)).
- Mental element of theft (303), dishonest misappropriation (314), criminal breach of trust (316).
- Fraudulently (Section 2(9)) needs intent to defraud; dishonestly needs wrongful gain or loss.
220 questions in the Law Maker question bank use this term. Practise Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita questions
Judgments
- Pratibha Rani v. Suraj Kumar (1985)A wife's stridhan remains her absolute property even in the custody of her husband or in-laws; they hold it as trustees, and refusing to return it on demand can be criminal breach of trust under Section 406 IPC.
- Punjab National Bank v. Surendra Prasad Sinha (1992)Section 3 of the Limitation Act bars only the remedy, not the debt; a bank holding a guarantor's fixed deposit as security could appropriate it towards a time-barred loan, and the guarantor's criminal complaint was quashed.
Related terms
- Wrongful gainGain by unlawful means of property to which the person gaining is not legally entitled (Section 2(36) of the BNS). Wrongfully retaining property is gain as much as wrongfully acquiring it.
- Wrongful lossThe loss by unlawful means of property to which the person losing it is legally entitled. Defined in Section 2(37) of the BNS; it is one half of the definition of dishonestly.
- FraudulentlyDoing anything with the intention to defraud, but not otherwise (Section 2(9) of the BNS). The intention involves deceit and an intended injury to the person deceived.
- 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).
- Movable propertyUnder Section 2(21) of the BNS, property of every description except land and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth. Other Acts frame it differently.
Further reading
Checked 6 November 2026. Statutory text is quoted from the Bare Acts library, taken from India Code. See the full glossary.