भारत भारतीय दण्ड संहिता (Indian Penal Code, IPC) भारत के अन्दर (जम्मू एवं काश्मीर को छोडकर) भारत के किसी भी नागरिक द्वारा किये गये कुछ अपराधों की परिभाषा व दण्ड का प्रावधान करती है। किन्तु यह संहिता भारत की सेना पर लागू नहीं होती। जम्मू एवं कश्मीर में इसके स्थान पर रणबीर दण्ड संहिता (RPC) लागू होती है।
भारतीय दण्ड संहिता ब्रिटिश काल में सन् १८६२ में लागू हुई। इसके बाद इसमे समय-समय पर संशोधन होते रहे (विशेषकर भारत के स्वतन्त्र होने के बाद)। पाकिस्तान और बांग्लादेश ने भी भारतीय दण्ड संहिता को ही लागू किया। लगभग इसी रूप में यह विधान तत्कालीन अन्य ब्रिटिश उपनिवेशों (बर्मा, श्रीलंका, मलेशिया, सिंगापुर, ब्रुनेई आदि) में भी लागू की गयी थी।
भारतीय दण्ड संहिता १८६० कुल २३ अध्यायों में विभाजित है। इसमें कुल ५११ धाराएँ (sections) हैं।
The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the main criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted in 1860 on the recommendations of first law commission of India established in 1834 under the Charter Act of 1833 under the Chairmanship of Thomas Babington Macaulay. It came into force in British India during the early British Raj period in 1862. However, it did not apply automatically in the Princely states, which had their own courts and legal systems until the 1940s. The Code has since been amended several times and is now supplemented by other criminal provisions.
After the partition of the British Indian Empire, the Indian Penal Code was inherited by its successor states, the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, where it continues independently as the Pakistan Penal Code. The Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) applicable in Jammu and Kashmir is also based on this Code.[2] After the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, the code continued in force there. The Code was also adopted by the British colonial authorities in Colonial Burma, Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), the Straits Settlements (now part of Malaysia), Singapore and Brunei, and remains the basis of the criminal codes in those countries.
The draft of the Indian Penal Code was prepared by the First Law Commission, chaired by Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1835 and was submitted to Governor-General of India Council in 1837. Its basis is the law of England freed from superfluities, technicalities and local peculiarities. Elements were also derived from the Napoleonic Code and from Edward Livingstons Louisiana Civil Code of 1825. The first final draft of the Indian Penal Code was submitted to the Governor-General of India in Council in 1837, but the draft was again revised. The drafting was completed in 1850 and the Code was presented to the Legislative Council in 1856, but it did not take its place on the statute book of British India until a generation later, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The draft then underwent a very careful revision at the hands of Barnes Peacock, who later became the first Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, and the future puisne judges of the Calcutta High Court, who were members of the Legislative Council, and was passed into law on 6 October 1860. The Code came into operation on 1 January 1862. Macaulay did not survive to see his masterpiece come into force, having died near the end of 1859.
The objective of this Act is to provide a general penal code for India. Though not an initial objective, the Act does not repeal the penal laws which were in force at the time of coming into force in India. This was so because the Code does not contain all the offences and it was possible that some offences might have still been left out of the Code, which were not intended to be exempted from penal consequences.
The Indian Penal Code of 1860, sub-divided into twenty three chapters, comprises five hundred and eleven sections. The Code starts with an introduction, provides explanations and exceptions used in it, and covers a wide range of offences.