BNS Section 9 – Limits on punishments for crimes that involve more than one crime.

The maximum sentence for a crime that involves more than one crime.

(1) If an offense is made up of parts, and any one of those parts is an offense in its own right, the person who committed the offense shall not be sentenced for more than one of those offenses, unless the law says otherwise.
(2) (a) If an offense falls under two or more different definitions of any law that defines or punishes offenses at the moment; or (b) If a person does several things that, when put together, make up a different offense, the person who did them cannot be given a harsher sentence than what the court could give for any one of those offenses.

Some examples

(a) A hits Z fifty times with a stick. Here, A may have broken the law by knowingly hurting Z through the whole beating and also through each of the hits that make up the whole beating. If A could be punished for every hit, he could spend fifty years in jail, one year for each hit. He could get more than one penalty for the beating, though.
(b) But if Y gets in the way of A beating Z and A hits Y on purpose, that strike is not part of the act by which A intentionally hurts Z, so A will get one sentence for intentionally hurting Z and another for striking Y.

Vijay was caught stealing money from the store where he worked. He kept stealing for a month, which was caught on CCTV cameras. He was found to be guilty of all the thefts and given the same sentence.