SSC CGL 2025 Tier-II · Paper-I, 19 January 2026 · General Awareness · Question 24 of 150

We transcribed this text from the pictures of a candidate's response sheet for this paper; the answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. This paper reaches us as a candidate's response sheet saved as pictures, so we transcribed the text from those pictures, and a second reader checked every question against them; where the layout carries meaning, we show the picture too. Each answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. UnlockIAS wrote the solutions.

Regarding 'Hit and Run' cases under Section 106(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), what is the maximum punishment if an offender causes death by rash and negligent driving and fails to inform a 'police officer' or 'Magistrate'?

(a)Imprisonment up to 10 years and a fine
(b)Life imprisonment
(c)Imprisonment up to 7 years and a fine
(d)Imprisonment up to 5 years and a fine

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Section 106(2) of the BNS covers death caused by rash and negligent driving of a vehicle, not amounting to culpable homicide, where the driver escapes without reporting it to a police officer or a Magistrate soon after the incident.

The punishment: imprisonment of either description for up to ten years, and a fine.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Life imprisonment — Life imprisonment does not appear in Section 106. The offence is death by negligence, not culpable homicide, and its heaviest term, in sub-section (2), is ten years.
(c)
Imprisonment up to 7 years and a fine — Seven years appears nowhere in Section 106. Its terms are five years under 106(1), two years for a registered medical practitioner, and ten years under 106(2).
(d)
Imprisonment up to 5 years and a fine — Five years and a fine is the sub-section (1) penalty for causing death by any rash or negligent act. Sub-section (2) doubles it when the driver escapes without reporting.

Concept

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act 45 of 2023) replaced the Indian Penal Code with effect from 1 July 2024.

Its Section 106 deals with causing death by negligence. Sub-section (1) sets up to five years and a fine, or up to two years and a fine for a registered medical practitioner during a medical procedure.

Sub-section (2) adds the hit-and-run tier: rash and negligent driving that causes death, followed by escaping without reporting, carries up to ten years and a fine.

When the BNS took effect on 1 July 2024, its commencement notification, S.O. 850(E) of 23 February 2024, left out Section 106(2), the provision truck drivers had protested against in January 2024.

The question asks what the section prescribes, and that is ten years.

Key facts

BNS Section 106(2): death by rash and negligent driving, followed by escaping without reporting, carries up to 10 years and a fine.
BNS Section 106(1): causing death by a rash or negligent act carries up to 5 years and a fine.
Under Section 106(1), a registered medical practitioner faces up to 2 years and a fine.
The BNS came into force on 1 July 2024, except Section 106(2) (S.O. 850(E), 23 February 2024).

Study next

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, the other two criminal laws of 2023Culpable homicide and murder under BNS Sections 100 to 105

Common traps

Picking five years, the sub-section (1) penalty, and missing the escape-without-reporting element that defines 106(2).
Assuming 'hit and run' carries life imprisonment, a punishment Section 106 does not provide.

Here one BNS sub-section is tested for its maximum term, with the neighbouring sub-section's five years as the lure. The code itself is asked at 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.17: which branch of law the BNS consolidates (criminal substantive law).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Current events — all 162 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.