Acid Attack Laws in India — A Critical Legal Analysis Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Despite the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) prescribing a minimum of ten years’ imprisonment for acid attacks under Section 124 and a comprehensive ancillary framework for victim compensation and acid sale regulation, India recorded only 16 convictions against 207 reported attacks and 703 pending cases in 2023 (NCRB). This paper examines the doctrinal architecture of acid attack law in India — tracing its evolution from IPC 1860 to BNS 2023 — against the empirical record of implementation failure.