Indian Penal Code, 1860 · Chapter III: Of Punishments

Section 57: Fractions of terms of punishment

The Indian Penal Code, 1860 was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 from 1 July 2024. It still applies to offences and proceedings from before that date.

Official text

Corresponding sections were matched by comparing the wording of both official texts, and for the IPC and BNS, also against a published correspondence table. Wording, punishments and structure often changed, so read both sections before relying on the match.

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 57

• Sukhdev Yadav @ Pehalwan v. State of (NCT of Delhi) & Others
  2025 INSC 96929 July 2025Disposed of

  Whether, an accused/convict who has completed his “life imprisonment for a fixed term” such as twenty years of actual sentence without remission, as in the instant case, is entitled to be released from prison on…

• Madan v. State of Uttar Pradesh
  2023 INSC 9909 November 2023Disposed of

  Six deaths were caused on account of brutal firing by the appellants and other accused persons. The trial court imposed sentence of capital punishment to the appellants (‘M’ and ‘S’) herein for the offence punishable…

• Vikas Yadav v. State of U.P. and Ors. Etc. Etc.
  2016 INSC 9433 October 2016Disposed of
• Mohd. Arif @Ashfaq v. He Registrar, Supreme Court of India & Ors.
  2014 INSC 5902 September 2014Disposed of
• Arjun Jadav v. State of West Bengal & Ors.
  2014 INSC 4642 July 2014Dismissed
• Duryodhan Rout v. State of Orlssa
  2014 INSC 4431 July 2014Partly allowed
• Sahib Hussain @ Sahib Jan v. State of Rajasthan
  2013 INSC 27018 April 2013Dismissed
• Life Convict Bengal @ Khoka @ Prasanta Sen v. B.K. Srivastava & Ors.
  2013 INSC 10113 February 2013Dismissed
• Sangeet & Anr. v. State of Haryana
  2012 INSC 52220 November 2012Partly allowed
• State of Haryana and Ors. v. Jagdish
  2010 INSC 15922 March 2010Dismissed
• Mulla & Anr. v. State of U.P.
  2010 INSC 898 February 2010Disposed of
• Ramraj @ Nanhoo @ Bihnu v. State of Chhatiisgarh
  2009 INSC 129710 December 2009Dismissed
• Swamy Shraddananda @ Murali Manohar Mishra v. State of Karnataka
  2008 INSC 85322 July 2008Disposed of
• Md. Munna v. Union of India and Ors.
  2005 INSC 42216 September 2005Dismissed
• Reddy Sampath Kumar v. State of Andhra Pradesh
  2005 INSC 4128 September 2005Dismissed
• Shri Bhagwan v. State of Rajasthan
  2001 INSC 27410 May 2001Disposed of
• Subhash Chander Etc. Etc. v. Krishan Lal and Ors. Etc. Etc.
  2001 INSC 18629 March 2001Disposed of
• Ashok Kumar Alias Golu v. Union of India and Ors.
  1991 INSC 14510 July 1991Dismissed
• State of Andhra Pradesh v. Vallabhapuram Ravi
  1984 INSC 17014 September 1984Dismissed
• Kartar Singh and Others v. State of Haryana Through Inspector General of Prison, Chandigarh
  1982 INSC 6626 August 1982Dismissed
• State of Madhya Pradesh v. Ratan Singh & Ors.
  1976 INSC 1415 May 1976Appeal(s) allowed
• Gopal Vinayak Godse v. The State of Maharashtra and Others
  1961 INSC 612 January 1961Dismissed