Section 106(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita: The New Hit-and-Run Law and Why It Was Contested

A plain-language guide to the provision that replaced IPC Section 304A, the protests it triggered, and what it now means for drivers, victims and the criminal justice system.

In late 2023, Parliament replaced the century-old Indian Penal Code with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and the old Code of Criminal Procedure with the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023. Buried inside this recodification was a single clause that, once truckers and bus operators understood what it meant, brought parts of the country's road transport to a halt: the new punishment for a driver who causes a fatal accident and then flees the scene without reporting it. That clause is now BNS Section 106, and it remains one of the most consequential — and most contested — provisions in India's new criminal code.