IPC Sections 504 to 510: Criminal Intimidation, Insult and Annoyance

IPC Section 504 - Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace

Section 504 applied where a person intentionally insulted another and thereby gave provocation, intending or knowing it to be likely that the provocation would cause that person to break the public peace or commit another offence. The maximum punishment was imprisonment of either description for two years, or fine, or both.

A mere exchange of unpleasant words did not by itself reproduce every statutory ingredient; the provision required the intentional insult, provocation and the specified intention or knowledge concerning breach of peace or commission of another offence.

IPC Section 505 - Statements conducing to public mischief

Section 505 dealt with making, publishing or circulating specified statements, rumours or reports capable of producing the public harms described by the section.

Section 505(1)

This covered, among other things, statements made with the prescribed intent or likelihood of causing members of the armed forces to mutiny or disregard duty; causing fear or alarm to the public whereby a person may be induced to commit an offence against the State or public tranquillity; or inciting a class or community to commit an offence against another class or community. Punishment could extend to three years, or fine, or both.

Section 505(2)

This addressed statements or reports containing rumours or alarming news intended or likely to create or promote enmity, hatred or ill-will between religious, racial, language or regional groups, castes or communities on the grounds specified in the provision. Punishment could extend to three years, or fine, or both.

Section 505(3)

Where the offence specified in Section 505(2) was committed in a place of worship or in an assembly engaged in religious worship or religious ceremonies, punishment could extend to five years and fine.

Statutory exception: Section 505 also protected a person who had reasonable grounds for believing the statement, rumour or report to be true and made, published or circulated it in good faith and without the prohibited intent.

IPC Section 506 - Punishment for criminal intimidation

For ordinary criminal intimidation as defined in Section 503, Section 506 prescribed imprisonment of either description up to two years, or fine, or both.

A more serious form attracted imprisonment up to seven years, or fine, or both, where the threat was to cause death or grievous hurt, destroy property by fire, cause an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life or imprisonment up to seven years, or impute unchastity to a woman.

IPC Section 507 - Criminal intimidation by anonymous communication

Section 507 applied when criminal intimidation was committed through an anonymous communication or after taking precautions to conceal the name or abode of the person from whom the threat came. It provided imprisonment of either description up to two years in addition to the punishment applicable under Section 506.

IPC Section 508 - Act caused by inducing belief of divine displeasure

Section 508 punished voluntarily causing or attempting to cause a person to do something which that person was not legally bound to do, or to omit something which that person was legally entitled to do, by inducing or attempting to induce a belief that the person or someone in whom the person was interested would otherwise become or be rendered an object of divine displeasure. Punishment could extend to one year, or fine, or both.

IPC Section 509 - Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman

Section 509 covered uttering a word, making a sound or gesture, exhibiting an object with the intention that it be heard or seen by a woman, or intruding upon her privacy, where the act was intended to insult her modesty.

After the 2013 amendment, the punishment applicable in the pre-BNS period was simple imprisonment up to three years and fine. This replaces the older one-year punishment still shown in some legacy material.

IPC Section 510 - Misconduct in public by a drunken person

Section 510 applied where a person, while intoxicated, appeared in a public place or a place which it was a trespass for that person to enter and conducted himself in a manner causing annoyance to any person. The punishment was simple imprisonment up to 24 hours, or fine up to ten rupees, or both.