
Indian Penal Code, 1860
Harbouring offender.—
Section
212
Punishment
Life Imprisonment or Imprisonment up to Five Year(s) + Fine
Cognizable
Cognizable
Bailable
Non-bailable
Compoundable
Non-Compoundable (Refer to CrPC 320 for exceptions)
Trial Court
Court of Session
Bare Act Text
212. Harbouring offender.—
Whenever an offence has been committed, whoever harbours or conceals a person whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the offender, with the intention of screening him from legal punishment;if a capital offence.— shall, if the offence is punishable with death, be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to fine;if punishable with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment.— and if the offence is punishable with 1imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment which may extend to ten years, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to fine;and if the offence is punishable with imprisonment which may extend to one year, and not to ten years, shall be punished with imprisonment of the description provided for the offence for a term which may extend to one-fourth part of the longest term of imprisonment provided for the offence, or with fine, or with both.“Offence” in this section includes any act committed at any place out of India, which, if committed in India, would be punishable under any of the following sections, namely, 302, 304, 382, 392, 393, 394, 395, 396, 397, 398, 399, 402, 435, 436, 449, 450, 457, 458, 459 and 460; and every such act shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to be punishable as if the accused person had been guilty of it in India.(Exception)— This provision shall not extend to any case in which the harbour or concealment is by the husband or wife of the offender.IllustrationA, knowing that B has committed dacoity, knowingly conceals B in order to screen him from legal punishment. Here, as B is liable to imprisonment for life, A is liable to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding three years, and is also liable to fine.

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Pramod Pal Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Pramod is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of StudyHub. He holds a Master's degree and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Geology, alongside more than 7+ years spent building and verifying competitive exam content for Indian aspirants. He leads StudyHub's editorial process across Indian Polity, the Constitution, Indian Economy, History, Geography, Science, and the platform's other subject areas — checking every article against primary sources (bare act text and Gazette notifications for constitutional topics, government and Economic Survey data for economy content, standard reference material elsewhere) and flagging it for re-verification whenever a relevant amendment, policy, or data update makes an earlier version outdated.






















