Criminal Law and Procedure (IPC/BNS, CrPC/BNSS, Evidence Act/BSA)
What is tested
Criminal law and procedure is tested at the magistrate's and sessions judge's level: the correct offence, the correct stage, the correct order. Since 1 July 2024 the governing statutes are the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam.
Core rules
- Transition: offences committed before 1 July 2024 are tried under IPC/CrPC/Evidence Act; BNSS section 531 saves pending inquiries, trials and appeals. Do not cite IPC sections for a 2025 FIR.
- BNS: culpable homicide (s.100), murder (s.101), punishment for murder (s.103), causing death by negligence (s.106).
- Investigation: BNSS section 173 (information in cognizable cases, zero-FIR where the place lies outside the station), section 35 (notice of appearance in lieu of arrest for offences punishable up to seven years).
- Default bail: charge-sheet not filed within 60 days (offences punishable up to ten years) or 90 days; the right is indefeasible and accrues on the expiry of the last day.
- Anticipatory bail (BNSS s.482): gravity of the offence, antecedents, flight risk, tampering - conditions cannot be fanciful.
- Statements recorded in investigation are not substantive evidence; they contradict under the Evidence Act/BSA only.
Worked example
A bank manager diverts a fixed deposit entrusted to him. The charge should be criminal breach of trust, not cheating: cheating requires deception as the inducing cause preceding delivery of property, whereas here property came into his hands in a fiduciary capacity and was dishonestly appropriated. A wrong charge does not by itself vitiate the trial unless it occasioned a failure of justice, but it invites acquittal on the charge framed.
Traps
- Overlooking the separate hearing on sentence.
- Clubbing distinct offences in a single charge.
- Treating a hostile witness's evidence as wholly effaced.