Public Nuisance Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023

In one line

The oldest environmental offence in India, renumbered on 1 July 2024, and its punishment is still one thousand rupees.

In exam wording: section 270 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 defines public nuisance; section 292 punishes a public nuisance not otherwise provided for with a fine which may extend to one thousand rupees; section 293 punishes the continuance of a nuisance after an injunction; section 279 punishes fouling the water of a public spring or reservoir; and section 280 punishes voluntarily vitiating the atmosphere so as to make it noxious to health, all with effect from 1 July 2024 in place of the corresponding sections of the Indian Penal Code 1860.

The numbers changed on 1 July 2024

Every book on your shelf gives the Penal Code numbers. The Indian Penal Code 1860 was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 with effect from 1 July 2024, and the environmental offences were renumbered without material change.

Learn this table. An answer that cites section 268 and section 290 of the Indian Penal Code is citing a repealed statute, and an examiner marking a paper set after July 2024 will notice.

Section 270: what a public nuisance is

A person is guilty of a public nuisance who does any act or is guilty of an illegal omission which causes any common injury, danger or annoyance to the public or to the 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.

And the sting in the tail: "but a common nuisance is not excused on the ground that it causes some convenience or advantage".

Four things to take from the definition.

One, it is a public wrong. The injury must be to the public or to people in general who dwell or occupy property in the vicinity, not to one person. A single neighbour's grievance is a private nuisance and belongs in a civil court.

Two, an omission counts. "Any act or is guilty of an illegal omission". That is what makes a municipality's failure to remove refuse a public nuisance, and it is the doctrinal foundation of Ratlam Municipality.