Criminal Law and Procedure: BNS and BNSS in practice
What is tested
Criminal Law and Procedure now means the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024 in place of the IPC and CrPC. Offences committed earlier are still tried under the old codes, so learn each IPC section with its Sanhita equivalent. Expect mens rea, general exceptions, culpable homicide and murder, theft and robbery, cheating, and the FIR-to-trial chain.
Rules that recur
- Private defence (IPC ss.96–106; BNS ss.34–38) must be proportionate and ends when the danger ends.
- Culpable homicide is the genus (IPC s.299; BNS s.100); murder (IPC s.300; BNS s.101) requires intention under one of the four clauses. Exception 4 - sudden fight, no premeditation, no undue advantage - reduces murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder (IPC s.304; BNS s.103).
- FIR: CrPC s.154 → BNSS s.173, covering zero FIR and a preliminary enquiry for offences punishable between three and seven years.
- Default bail: CrPC s.167(2) → BNSS s.187(3); 60 days for most offences, 90 for serious ones, counted from authorised custody.
- Bail: CrPC ss.437/439 → BNSS ss.480/483; anticipatory bail s.438 → BNSS s.482.
- Inherent power: CrPC s.482 → BNSS s.528.
Worked example
A and B quarrel over parking; B slaps A; A strikes B once on the head with a wooden rod and B dies. There was no premeditation, the fight was sudden and A took no undue advantage. The blow to a vital part with knowledge of likely death brings the act within murder, but Exception 4 reduces it to culpable homicide not amounting to murder under s.304 (BNS s.103).
Traps
Treating every single-blow death as culpable homicide; forgetting that statements to police are barred by s.162 CrPC save what s.27 of the Evidence Act permits; counting the default-bail period from arrest rather than the first remand; applying the Sanhitas to pre-2024 offences.