Noise Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 152 BNSS

In one line

The Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code were replaced on 1 July 2024, so every section number a noise textbook gives you is wrong.

In exam wording: with effect from 1 July 2024 the Indian Penal Code 1860 was replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023; public nuisance, formerly section 268 of the Penal Code with its punishment in section 290, is now dealt with in the corresponding provisions of the Sanhita, and the conditional order for the removal of a public nuisance, formerly section 133 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, is now section 152 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.

Why this chapter exists

Because a student reading almost any book on this subject will be given section 268 and section 290 of the Indian Penal Code and section 133 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and will cite repealed provisions in an examination written in 2026.

The three new criminal laws came into force on 1 July 2024. They are the reason the University's own 2024 circular exists, and Module IV works through what they did to the offences under the pollution statutes. Here the point is narrower: the machinery a noise complaint has used since 1861 has moved, and the numbers have changed.

The book states the position as: the old provision, what it did, and where the subject matter now sits. It does not print a new section number for the public nuisance offence, because the numbering of the Sanhita is not something to be asserted from memory, and the safe course in an examination is to describe the provision and to name the statute.

Public nuisance as a crime

What the old law did. Section 268 of the Penal Code defined a public nuisance as an act or illegal omission which causes any common injury, danger or annoyance to the public or to people in general who dwell or occupy property in the vicinity, or which must necessarily cause injury, obstruction, danger or annoyance to persons who may have occasion to use any public right. Section 290 provided the punishment for a public nuisance not otherwise provided for, which was a small fine. Sections 277 and 278 dealt with fouling water and making the atmosphere noxious.

What that meant for noise. A person making noise that caused common annoyance to people dwelling in the vicinity committed a public nuisance. The definition fits noise very naturally, because "annoyance to the public or to people in general who dwell or occupy property in the vicinity" is exactly what a loudspeaker at midnight causes.

And the punishment was derisory. The fine under section 290 was of the order of a few hundred rupees, unchanged for over a century. That is the standing criticism of the public nuisance offence as an instrument against noise, and it is why the real work was done by the abatement power rather than by prosecution.