📜 Official Text

(1) Making/publishing/circulating (including electronically) a false statement/rumour/report intending or likely to: cause armed-forces mutiny/dereliction; cause public fear/alarm inducing offences against the State/public tranquillity; or incite one community against another - is punished with up to 3 years' imprisonment, fine, or both. (2)-(3) The same specifically stoking religious/racial/language/regional/caste enmity is punished with up to 3 years, fine, or both, rising to up to 5 years plus fine if done in a place of worship. A good-faith exception applies where the person reasonably believed the statement true and had no prohibited intent.