BNS §6

BNS Section 6 carries the same 20-year equivalence with a new tail clause: unless otherwise provided. The operative rule is unchanged; the tail makes explicit the standard interpretive principle that a specific provision can override a general default.

IPC Section 57 fixed an absolute equivalence: imprisonment for life shall be reckoned as equivalent to imprisonment for twenty years for the purpose of calculating fractions of terms. BNS Section 6 carries the same equivalence with a new tail clause: unless otherwise provided. Per project doctrine, codification of defeasibility ("unless otherwise provided", "subject to...") is drafting clarification, not legal change — it makes explicit the standard interpretive principle that a specific provision can override a general default. The 20-year equivalence remains the operative default; no envelope expansion, contraction, or conditional restructuring of the rule.