Exposure and abandonment of child under twelve years, by parent or person having care of it
Section 317 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 deals with exposure and abandonment of child under twelve years, by parent or person having care of it. Whoever being the father or mother of a child under the age of twelve years, or having the care of such child, shall expose or leave such child in any place with the intention of wholly abandoning such child, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to se The Act came into force on 01 Jan 1862. Repealed by section 358 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (45 of 2023) with effect from 1 July 2024, but conduct before that date is still charged, tried and appealed under it.
Whoever being the father or mother of a child under the age of twelve years, or having the care of such child, shall expose or leave such child in any place with the intention of wholly abandoning such child, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both.
Explanation.-This section is not intended to prevent the trial of the offender for murder or culpable homicide, as the case may be, if the child die in consequence of the exposure.
Section 317, The Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Act 45 of 1860).
Now in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita
BNS 93 Exposure and abandonment of child under twelve years of age, by parent or person having care of it Text carried over almost unchanged 99%
Measured by comparing the text of the two provisions, not taken from an official correspondence table — there is no machine-readable one. See both texts side by side before relying on it.
Both regimes are live. The repealed enactment still governs what happened while it was in force. We never redirect one to the other.
Cross-references
Extracted from the operative text of the enactments themselves. Every destination below exists in our corpus.
Related judgements & precedents
These are some judgments that construed this section, and hold precedence value. They hold authority on how to read, interpret and use this section.
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Ragini vs The State of M.p.
Court's Decision & Legal Precedent
When circumstantial evidence establishes that an accused woman delivered a child shortly before the discovery of a dead newborn child, and the accused fails to provide any satisfactory explanation regarding the whereabouts of the delivered child despite being examined under Section 313 Cr.P.C., and medical evidence confirms the time of delivery coincides with the time of death of the recovered child, the chain of circumstantial evidence is complete and sufficient to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused delivered the child and caused its homicidal death. The absence of DNA testing does not adversely affect the prosecution case when ocular and medical evidence are conclusive.
On this section: Conviction for concealment of birth - the court applied this section to convict the appellant for concealing the birth of the child and disposing of the body in the well
The holding above is the ratio decidendi as extracted from the judgment by eCourts India, reproduced unaltered — it is a rendering of the court's reasoning, not a substitute for its words. Read the order itself before relying on it.
Questions about Section 317
What have the courts held on Section 317 of the Indian Penal Code?
Ragini vs The State of M.p. (22 Jun 2017) is the leading judgment on this section among those set out below: Conviction for concealment of birth - the court applied this section to convict the appellant for concealing the birth of the child and disposing of the body in the well.
How do I find court cases under Section 317 of the Indian Penal Code?
In judgments and charge sheets this section is written several ways, and each form finds a different set of orders. These search the full text of every order eCourtsIndia holds, best matches first: IPC 317, section 317 IPC, section 317 of the Indian Penal Code. People searching for it also type ipc 317 in bns and ipc 317 2 in hindi. Each opens the full list of orders on eCourtsIndia, where it can be narrowed by court, year and outcome. 1 reported judgment on this section is set out on this page, beginning with Ragini vs The State of M.p. (22 Jun 2017).
What should I read with Section 317 of the Indian Penal Code, and has it changed?
4 other provisions in this corpus refer back to it. For anything done on or after 1 July 2024 the provision to read is BNS 93 (Exposure and abandonment of child under twelve years of age, by parent or person having care of it), which replaced it; conduct before that date is still charged, tried and appealed under this section.
When did Section 317 of the Indian Penal Code come into force?
Section 317 of the Indian Penal Code, cited as IPC 317, came into force on 01 Jan 1862, having been enacted on 06 Oct 1860. It is no longer in force.
Other sections of this Act
- 499. Defamation1512 words
- 464. Making a false document1223 words
- 300. Murder1172 words
- 378. Theft980 words
- 108. Abettor745 words
- 403. Dishonest misappropriation of property727 words
Source and method. Compiled from the enactments of Parliament and of the State legislatures as published on India Code, and republished together with commentary and other original matter under section 52(1)(q)(ii) of the Copyright Act, 1957. Structured, cross-referenced and maintained by eCourtsIndia. Recovered from the consolidated text published by India Code (item 7b7d4fe6-206b-4e33-81f1-b98b018acaf6). This page is not a substitute for legal advice.