About this topic
Extortion is defined and punished in Section 308 of the B.N.S. These notes cover the definition in Section 308(1), how extortion differs from theft, its three essentials (the three D's: Dread, Dishonesty and Delivery), the decision of the Supreme Court in Salib v. State of Uttar Pradesh, the graded punishments in Section 308(2) to (7), and how the law applies to three problem situations.
Three police files. Which one is extortion?
- File one: Farhan, a truck owner in Nagpur, gets a call: send ₹50,000 tonight, or your trucks burn on the highway. Frightened, he transfers the money.
- File two: Two men pin a farmer named Aadil to the ground and press his thumb onto a blank stamp paper while he struggles.
- File three: Zoya gets a message demanding ₹1 lakh, or her private photographs go online. She pays nothing and goes to the police.
One answer surprises most students. The files are solved under "Solving the three files" below.
Definition of extortion: Section 308(1) B.N.S.
Extortion is defined in Section 308(1) of the B.N.S.:
"Whoever intentionally puts any person in fear of any injury to that person, or to any other, and thereby dishonestly induces the person so put in fear to deliver to any person any property, or valuable security or anything signed or sealed which may be converted into a valuable security, commits extortion."
The victim's hand: extortion and theft compared
In theft, the thief's hand moves the property, without consent. In extortion, the victim's own hand gives it away. There is consent, but it is consent bought with fear, and that is what the law punishes.
| Point | Theft | Extortion |
|---|---|---|
| Whose hand moves the property | The thief's hand | The victim's own hand |
| Consent | Without consent | Consent exists, but it is obtained by fear |
| Property covered | Only movable property (Section 303) | Movable and immovable property |
Remember the picture of the victim's hand. From it come the three essentials of extortion, the three D's: Dread, Dishonesty and Delivery. If any one of them is missing, there is no extortion, and one should look for another offence.
First D: Dread (fear of injury)
The accused must intentionally create fear of injury. "Injury" is a wide word.
Meaning of injury: Section 2(14)
"Injury" means "any harm whatever illegally caused to any person, in body, mind, reputation or property".
So a threat to burn trucks (harm to property) or to spread a shameful story (harm to reputation) is as good as a threat to break bones (harm to body).
Fear of injury "to that person, or to any other"
The fear need not be of injury to the person who hands over the property. Fear of injury to any other person is enough.
A father who pays because his daughter is threatened is still a victim of extortion.
Threats to reputation: does truth help the blackmailer?
The B.N.S. itself illustrates extortion with a threat to publish a defamatory libel unless money is paid. The question is whether it helps the blackmailer if the secret he threatens to reveal is true.
Exception 1 to Section 356 (defamation) provides:
"It is not defamation to impute anything which is true concerning any person, if it be for the public good that the imputation should be made or published."
Truth is a defence only when it is combined with public good. Exposing a genuine private matter that serves no public good can still be defamation, and threatening to expose it can still be a threat of injury.
Truth alone is no shield for a blackmailer. A threat to expose a true but private matter that serves no public good is still a threat of injury to reputation.
Second D: Dishonesty
Fear alone is not enough. The inducement to deliver must be dishonest.
- Dishonestly, Section 2(7): "doing anything with the intention of causing wrongful gain to one person or wrongful loss to another person".
- Wrongful gain, Section 2(36): "gain by unlawful means of property to which the person gaining is not legally entitled".
When fear is used to collect what the law does not entitle a person to, the inducement is dishonest.
Third D: Delivery
Delivery is where most cases are won or lost. The victim must be induced to hand over the thing, either to the accused or to any other person.
What may be delivered
- Any property. Theft under Section 303 covers only movable property, but extortion covers immovable property too.
- A valuable security. Under Section 2(31), "valuable security" means "a document which is, or purports to be, a document whereby any legal right is created, extended, transferred, restricted, extinguished or released, or whereby any person acknowledges that he lies under legal liability, or has not a certain legal right".
- Anything signed or sealed which may be converted into a valuable security, that is, a paper that may later become a valuable security.
- Valuable security: a tenant forced to sign away his shop; a lender forced to sign a false receipt saying his loan is repaid.
- Something signed or sealed that may become a valuable security: a signed blank cheque, or a thumb-marked blank stamp paper, which is exactly the kind of paper in Aadil's file.
The paper in Aadil's file is of the right kind, but that does not settle whether his case is extortion. The Supreme Court's emphasis on delivery answers that question.
Delivery must be induced by fear
Salib v. State of Uttar Pradesh (decided on 8 August 2023): A woman alleged death threats to make her withdraw a criminal case, and the accused faced Section 386 of the IPC, which punished extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt.
Held: Justice J. B. Pardiwala, writing for the Court, said that the victim's will must be overpowered by fear, and observed: "Forcibly taking any property will not come under this definition." As nothing showed that she had parted with money out of fear, extortion was not made out, and the FIR against the appellant was quashed.
Principle: Extortion requires delivery by a victim whose will is overpowered by fear. Property taken by force, without such fear-induced delivery, is not extortion.
The aggravated form under Section 386 of the IPC is now Section 308(5) of the B.N.S., and the definition the Court applied is now Section 308(1).
Punishment: Section 308(2) to (7)
If fear is created and nothing is delivered, the offender still does not escape. Section 308 works at two stages, threat and completion, across three kinds of fear: fear of any injury, fear of death or grievous hurt, and fear of an accusation of a grave offence.
| Sub-section | What is punished | Punishment |
|---|---|---|
| 308(2) | Committing extortion | Imprisonment of either description up to 7 years, or fine, or both |
| 308(3) | In order to commit extortion, putting or attempting to put any person in fear of any injury | Imprisonment of either description up to 2 years, or fine, or both |
| 308(4) | In order to commit extortion, putting or attempting to put any person in fear of death or of grievous hurt to that person or to any other | Imprisonment of either description up to 7 years, and also liable to fine |
| 308(5) | Committing extortion by putting any person in fear of death or of grievous hurt to that person or to any other | Imprisonment of either description up to 10 years, and also liable to fine |
| 308(6) | In order to commit extortion, putting or attempting to put any person in fear of an accusation, against that person or any other, of having committed, or attempted to commit, an offence punishable with death, or with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years | Imprisonment of either description up to 10 years, and also liable to fine |
| 308(7) | Committing extortion by putting any person in fear of an accusation, against that person or any other, of having committed or attempted to commit any offence punishable with death, or with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years, or of having attempted to induce any other person to commit such an offence | Imprisonment of either description up to 10 years, and also liable to fine |
"Imprisonment of either description" means simple or rigorous imprisonment.
Threat stage and completion stage at a glance
| Kind of fear | Threat stage (fear created or attempted) | Completion stage (extortion committed) |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary injury | Up to 2 years: Section 308(3) | Up to 7 years: Section 308(2) |
| Death or grievous hurt | Up to 7 years: Section 308(4) | Up to 10 years: Section 308(5) |
| Accusation of a grave offence | Up to 10 years: Section 308(6) | Up to 10 years: Section 308(7) |
Because the threat stage is separately punishable under Section 308(3), (4) and (6), even a failed extortionist, whose victim delivers nothing, can be punished.
Solving the three files
| File | Analysis | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Farhan (threat to burn his trucks) | He feared injury to his property and paid with his own hand. A threat made by phone is no different, since the B.N.S. even illustrates a threat sent through an electronic device. | Extortion |
| Aadil (thumb pressed onto blank stamp paper) | His body was overpowered, not his will. There was no delivery induced by fear, so on the reasoning in Salib, this is not extortion. | Not extortion; offences such as criminal force and wrongful restraint remain |
| Zoya (threat to post private photographs) | She paid nothing, so nothing was delivered and extortion is incomplete. The threat stage is still punishable. | Blackmailer punishable under Section 308(3) |
Aadil's file is the one that surprises most students. A thumb-marked blank stamp paper is the kind of document extortion covers, but where the paper is obtained by overpowering the body rather than the will, there is no delivery and so no extortion.
Quick revision
- Extortion is defined in Section 308(1) of the B.N.S.
- Remember the victim's hand: in theft the thief's hand moves the property without consent; in extortion the victim's own hand gives it away, with consent bought by fear.
- The three D's: Dread (intentional fear of injury, Section 2(14)), Dishonesty (Section 2(7) and 2(36)) and Delivery (property, valuable security under Section 2(31), or anything signed or sealed that may become a valuable security).
- Extortion covers immovable property; theft under Section 303 covers only movable property.
- Truth alone is no shield to a blackmailer (Exception 1 to Section 356 requires public good).
- Salib v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2023): the victim's will must be overpowered by fear; forcibly taking property is not extortion.
- Punishment works at two stages across three kinds of fear: 2 and 7 years for ordinary injury, 7 and 10 years for death or grievous hurt, 10 and 10 years for an accusation of a grave offence.
- If one of the three D's is missing, look for another offence.
