BNS, BNSS and BSA: what changed for criminal cases

On 1 July 2024 India replaced its three foundational criminal statutes. The Indian Penal Code, 1860 became the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 became the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 became the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.

For anyone with a live case, the practical questions are narrow: which law applies to me, which section numbers have changed, and does any of it actually help.

Which statute applies to your case

The date of the offence governs. An offence committed before 1 July 2024 continues to be investigated, charged and tried under the IPC and CrPC. An offence committed on or after that date falls under the BNS and BNSS. Courts are consequently running both regimes in parallel, and will be for years.

Section numbers that changed

Old	New	Subject
Section 302 IPC	Section 103 BNS	Murder
Section 420 IPC	Section 318 BNS	Cheating
Section 498A IPC	Section 85 BNS	Cruelty by husband or relatives
Section 406 IPC	Section 316 BNS	Criminal breach of trust
Section 506 IPC	Section 351 BNS	Criminal intimidation
Section 154 CrPC	Section 173 BNSS	FIR
Section 41A CrPC	Section 35(3) BNSS	Notice to appear
Section 167(2) CrPC	Section 187 BNSS	Default bail
Section 438 CrPC	Section 482 BNSS	Anticipatory bail
Section 439 CrPC	Section 483 BNSS	Bail powers of High Court and Sessions
Section 482 CrPC	Section 528 BNSS	Inherent powers of the High Court (quashing)
Section 65B Evidence Act	Section 63 BSA	Admissibility of electronic records

Changes that matter in practice

Zero FIR and electronic registration

An FIR can be registered at any police station regardless of jurisdiction and transferred to the appropriate one, and information can be given electronically. For cyber victims whose fraud has no obvious geographic home, this removes a genuine obstacle.

Time limits on the process

The BNSS imposes timelines at several stages — for supplying documents to the accused, for framing charge, and for pronouncing judgment after arguments conclude. Whether these are consistently met is a separate question, but they give counsel something to point at.

Mandatory forensic examination

For offences carrying seven years or more, forensic examination of the scene is required. This cuts in both directions: it strengthens genuine cases and creates a real line of defence where the requirement has not been complied with.

Organised crime and terrorism in the general law

Section 111 BNS introduces organised crime as an offence in the ordinary criminal law rather than only in special state statutes. It is being invoked in large syndicate cyber fraud prosecutions, and it carries up to life imprisonment. Where it appears in an FIR, the bail position changes completely.

Electronic evidence

Section 63 BSA carries forward the certification requirement formerly in Section 65B of the Evidence Act, with an expanded schedule for the certificate. The requirement remains mandatory, following Arjun Panditrao Khotkar, and defective certification remains a genuine line of defence in cyber prosecutions.

Does any of this help an accused person?

Modestly, and mostly procedurally. The statutory timelines and the mandatory forensic requirements create compliance points that can be tested. The substantive law of cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust is largely carried over with new numbering. Anyone suggesting the new codes have transformed the position of an accused is overselling it.

What has genuinely changed is that everyone — police, prosecutors, courts and counsel — is working with two sets of numbers at once. Check which statute applies to your matter before you look up a single section.

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