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B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 4 Criminal Law I 2026 Jan Question Paper with Solutions

KSLU Solved Question Papers

Criminal Law I

Previous Year Question Paper with Solution

B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 4

2026 Jan Examination

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Mumbai

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First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.

Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.

Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.

Passages from this volume may be quoted, in print, online or by an AI system, with credit: name munotes.in and link to this volume's page. The volume may not be reproduced as a whole. Full terms at munotes.in/content-license.

munotes.in is an independent study resource for students of Karnataka State Law University. It is not affiliated with Karnataka State Law University, and is not endorsed by it.

The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.

The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2026 Jan examination.

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Contents

The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2026 Jan examination, in the order it was set.

MarksPage

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MarksPage

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The Paper as Set

The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2026 Jan examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.

Duration 3 hours  ·  Total marks 80  ·  20 questions answered

Instructions printed on the paper

  • N.B. (1) Answer all five Units. (2) One essay type question and short note/problems is compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answer should be written either in English or Kannada completely.

How to use this volume

Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.

Read the original question paper

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Q1

Unit I

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(a)Critically examine the rationale behind the enactments of the B.N.S, 2023 replacing the I.P.C. 1860. Highlight the key reforms introduced and how B.N.S. address modern-day criminal justice challenges.[10]

Answer

For full marks, cover: why a code of 1860 had to be replaced; how the Sanhita was made and when it came into force; the key reforms, section by section; how the reforms meet modern crime; the court decisions the Sanhita had to absorb; a critical assessment of what it did and did not do; a conclusion.

The setting

The Indian Penal Code, 1860 was drafted by the First Law Commission under Macaulay. It was enacted as Act XLV of 1860 and came into force on 1 January 1862. It governed Indian criminal law for over 160 years.

It was repealed by section 358(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act 45 of 2023). The Sanhita received the President's assent on 25 December 2023 and came into force on 1 July 2024. Only section 106(2), on hit and run driving, was held back.

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The repeal does not wipe out the past. Section 358(2) saves every penalty and proceeding for offences committed before 1 July 2024. Those offences are still tried under the Code.

Why the Code had to be replaced

The case for replacement rests on six points.

  1. A colonial purpose. The Code was written to govern a subject people. It opened its special part with offences against the State and reached offences against the human body only in Chapter XVI. The order showed whom the law was meant to protect first.
  2. Patchwork amendment. For a century and a half the Code was amended piece by piece, in 1983, 1986, 2013 and 2018 among other years. Section numbers like 376AB and 498A show how much had been added without any rearrangement.
  3. Provisions the courts had struck down. Adultery and consensual same-sex conduct were held unconstitutional in 2018, yet their sections stayed in print. Sedition had been suspended by the Supreme Court in 2022.
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  1. Modern crime outside the Code. Terrorism was dealt with only in special Acts. Organised crime was covered only by State laws, such as the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999. Many States had no law on it at all.
  2. Outdated punishments. The Code had no non-custodial punishment other than a fine. Many fines were still the amounts fixed in 1860.
  3. Victims and gender. Offences against women and children were scattered across four chapters. The Code's "he" covered only male and female, not transgender persons.

How the Sanhita was made

A first Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 11 August 2023. It was examined by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, whose Report No. 246 was presented on 10 November 2023.

The Bill was then withdrawn. A revised Bill, the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, was introduced on 12 December 2023. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on 20 December and the Rajya Sabha on 21 December 2023. Two companion Acts replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Evidence Act on the same day.

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The key reforms

  1. A new structure. The Sanhita has 358 sections in 20 chapters, against the Code's 511 sections. All definitions sit in one section, section 2, in alphabetical order.
  2. Women and children first. Chapter V (sections 63 to 99) gathers every offence against women and children. It now comes before offences against the State.
  3. New offences. These are organised crime (section 111) and petty organised crime (section 112), and a terrorist act (section 113). Murder by a group of five or more on grounds such as caste or language is now section 103(2). Grievous hurt on the same grounds is section 117(4). Snatching (section 304), hiring a child to commit an offence (section 95) and sexual intercourse by deceitful means (section 69) are new as well.
  4. A new punishment. Section 4 lists six punishments. The sixth, community service (section 4(f)), is new and applies to petty offences.
  5. Sedition replaced. Section 124A has no successor by that name. Section 152 now punishes acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
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  1. New definitions. "Child" means anyone below eighteen (section 2(3)). "Gender" covers male, female and transgender persons (section 2(10)). "Document" includes electronic and digital records (section 2(8)).
  2. Wider reach. Section 1(5)(c) applies the Sanhita to any person abroad who commits an offence targeting a computer resource located in India.

How it meets modern challenges

Each new offence answers a gap the Code had left.

  1. Syndicates and cyber crime. Section 111 reaches kidnapping, extortion, contract killing, land grabbing, financial scams and cyber crime done for a crime syndicate. Every State now has a law on organised crime.
  2. Lynching. Section 103(2) gives death or life for each member of a mob that kills on grounds of identity. The first Bill had allowed seven years. The enacted text dropped that lower limit, as the Standing Committee had urged.
  3. Deception of women. Section 69 punishes intercourse obtained by a false promise of marriage, a job or promotion, or by hiding one's identity. The Code had no such offence.
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  1. Petty offenders. Community service keeps a first offender out of prison. An example is a person who steals goods worth under five thousand rupees and returns them (proviso to section 303(2)).
  2. Cross-border harm. Section 1(5)(c) answers attacks on Indian computers from abroad.

The court decisions it had to absorb

Facts. In Joseph Shine v. Union of India, AIR 2018 SC 4898, decided on 27 September 2018, section 497 was challenged. It punished only the man who had intercourse with another man's wife, and only with the husband's complaint.

Held. A five-judge bench struck it down under Articles 14, 15 and 21, because it treated a wife as her husband's property.

Why it bears. The Sanhita has no adultery offence at all. It follows the Court rather than re-enacting a dead provision.

Facts. In Independent Thought v. Union of India, AIR 2017 SC 4904, decided on 11 October 2017, Exception 2 to section 375 was challenged. It allowed a husband intercourse with a wife aged between fifteen and eighteen.

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Held. The Court read the exception down to eighteen, to protect the girl child.

Why it bears. Exception 2 to section 63 of the Sanhita now uses the age of eighteen. But the Court expressly left the marital rape of an adult wife alone, and so does the Sanhita.

Facts. In Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar, AIR 1962 SC 955, a conviction for sedition for a political speech was challenged under Article 19(1)(a).

Held. The Court upheld section 124A only by reading it down. It reached only words with the intention or tendency to cause public disorder or incite violence. On 11 May 2022, in S.G. Vombatkere v. Union of India, the Supreme Court directed that all proceedings under section 124A be kept in abeyance.

Why it bears. Section 152 is Parliament's answer. Its Explanation protects comment criticising the Government by lawful means.

A critical assessment

The reforms are real, but the case against the Sanhita deserves to be stated as strongly.

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  1. Mostly a re-enactment. Culpable homicide, murder, theft, cheating and the general exceptions are the Code's words with new numbers. The change is less radical than the name suggests.
  2. Sedition in another form. Critics argue that section 152 is wider than the offence it replaced. "Subversive activities" and "separatist activities" are not defined.
  3. Overlap with special laws. Sections 111 and 113 overlap with State organised crime Acts and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. No separate procedure was made for them, so two regimes can apply to the same act.
  4. A gap left by section 377. The Sanhita has no counterpart to section 377. Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India, (2018) 10 SCC 1, decriminalised only consensual adult conduct. Dropping the whole section leaves the rape of an adult man and bestiality without a specific offence.
  5. Marital rape. The husband's exception survives for a wife of eighteen or above, though the Verma Committee had recommended its removal in 2013.
  6. Unfinished drafting. Community service is not defined by length, kind of work or supervision. The age of criminal responsibility stays at seven.
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Conclusion. The Sanhita replaced a colonial code of 1860 with a law that puts the citizen first. It absorbs the Supreme Court's rulings and reaches modern crime. It reorders the law around women, children and the human body, adds organised crime, terrorism, mob lynching, snatching and deceitful intercourse, and introduces community service. Yet most of its text is the Code renumbered. It leaves open the overlap with special laws, the breadth of section 152, the gap left by section 377, and marital rape. It is best seen as a careful consolidation with targeted reforms, not a new criminal law.

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