IPC §54 → BNS §5

BNS Section 5 carries the same entitlement inside a general commutation power. The appropriate Government may, without the consent of the offender, commute any punishment under the Sanhita to any other punishment, in accordance with section 474 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Death is one of the punishments under BNS 4(a), so IPC 54's death-commutation power survives intact within BNS 5's broader frame. The IPC 55A definition of appropriate Government is now an Explanation embedded directly in BNS 5.

IPC Section 54 carried a death-specific commutation power: where a sentence of death has been passed, the appropriate Government may, without the consent of the offender, commute the punishment for any other punishment provided by the Code. BNS Section 5 absorbs IPC 54 — together with IPC 55 (commutation of life imprisonment) and IPC 55A (definition of appropriate Government) — into a single general commutation power that covers any punishment under the Sanhita. The IPC 54 entitlement is fully preserved inside BNS 5: death is one of the punishments under BNS 4(a), so the appropriate Government's power to commute a death sentence (without offender's consent, to any other punishment) survives intact. Two structural shifts at the provision level — neither of which constitutes envelope drift: (i) the trigger frame moves from death-specific to general standing power; (ii) the procedure is now anchored to section 474 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (cross-reference remap from CrPC sections 432–434 under the cross-reference-remapping doctrine). The appropriate Government definition that IPC 55A carried separately is now an Explanation embedded in BNS 5 itself.