Criminal Law and Procedure
Criminal Law and Procedure tests the general exceptions, offence definitions and trial machinery now contained in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), which replaced the IPC and CrPC with effect from 1 July 2024. Questions often ask you to classify an offence and then test whether the investigation and trial complied with the new Code.
Core offences
- BNS sections 100 to 106 deal with culpable homicide, murder and abetment of suicide; sections 303 to 305 cover theft and robbery; 316 covers criminal breach of trust; 318 covers cheating; 63 and 64 cover rape; 356 covers defamation.
- General exceptions in sections 14 to 44 include private defence, necessity, infancy, insanity and intoxication.
Procedure
- Information is recorded under section 173 BNSS, with provision for zero FIR and electronic FIR; arrest safeguards appear in sections 35 and 36.
- Remand and default bail are governed by section 187 BNSS; bail provisions are in sections 478 to 483, including section 479 for first-time undertrials.
- Charge is framed under section 234 BNSS; judgment and sentencing follow sections 248 and 392.
Worked example
X, during a sudden quarrel over a boundary, picks up a spade and strikes Y once on the head; Y dies. Issue: murder or culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Reasoning: the single blow, absence of premeditation and the sudden fight bring the case within Exception 4 to section 103 BNS, so the offence is punishable under section 105, not section 103. If the blow were repeated on a vital part after the victim fell, intention to cause death could be inferred and Exception 4 would fail.
Traps
- Treating an FIR as substantive evidence; it is only corroborative or usable for contradiction.
- Assuming a confession to a police officer is admissible; section 23 BSA bars it, subject to the discovery exception.
- Citing repealed IPC or CrPC sections in answers without noting the BNS or BNSS equivalent.