This section only applies to police officers.

It applies to any 'public servant' with a legal duty to arrest or guard someone, including jail staff, court officials, and other custodians.

Any escape from custody makes the guard automatically guilty under this section.

The section requires the official to have acted intentionally — deliberately omitting to arrest, or knowingly allowing or aiding the escape, not merely making an honest error.

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Section 260

Intentional omission to apprehend on part of public servant bound to apprehend person

Whoever, being a public servant, legally bound as such public servant to apprehend or to keep in confinement any person under sentence of a Court for any offence or lawfully committed to custody, intentionally omits to apprehend such person, or intentionally suffers such person to escape or intentionally aids such person in escaping or attempting to escape from such confinement, shall be punished,—§

(a) with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to fourteen years, with or without fine, if the person in confinement, or who ought to have been apprehended, is under sentence of death; or§

(b) with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, with or without fine, if the person in confinement or who ought to have been apprehended, is subject, by a sentence of a Court, or by virtue of a commutation of such sentence, to imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of ten years, or upwards; or§

(c) with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both, if the person in confinement or who ought to have been apprehended, is subject by a sentence of a Court to imprisonment for a term not extending to ten years or if the person was lawfully committed to custody.§

Why this exists

Courts depend on jail staff, escort officers, and other custodians to actually carry out arrest and detention orders. Without a criminal penalty, an official could quietly let a dangerous convict walk free — through bribery, sympathy, or carelessness dressed up as choice — and undermine the whole justice system. This provision replaces and continues the old IPC Section 221 with the same graded punishment structure.

Common misconceptions

Myth: This section only applies to police officers.
Fact: It applies to any 'public servant' with a legal duty to arrest or guard someone, including jail staff, court officials, and other custodians.
Myth: Any escape from custody makes the guard automatically guilty under this section.
Fact: The section requires the official to have acted intentionally — deliberately omitting to arrest, or knowingly allowing or aiding the escape, not merely making an honest error.