title: "New criminal laws explained: IPC to BNS, CrPC to BNSS, Evidence Act to BSA" description: "India replaced its three core criminal laws on 1 July 2024. Here is what the transition means in practice for advocates handling both old and new regime matters." datePublished: "2026-06-19T09:00:00+05:30" dateModified: "2026-06-19T09:00:00+05:30" author: "NyayX Team" ogImageTitle: "IPC to BNS, CrPC to BNSS: New Criminal Laws Explained"
On 1 July 2024, three statutes that had governed Indian criminal law for over a century were replaced. The change was simultaneous and complete. If you have been in practice for any length of time, you already know the new names. What is less settled, in day-to-day practice, is the transitional picture: which law applies to which matter, and where to find the new provisions quickly.
This post covers the basics of what changed, the parallel regime that now runs in courts, and a few structural differences worth knowing.
The three replacements
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (BNS) replaced the Indian Penal Code 1860. The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (BNSS) replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973. The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 (BSA) replaced the Indian Evidence Act 1872.
The full forms matter because they get used inconsistently in court filings and media. BNS full form: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. BNSS full form: Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. BSA here refers to the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, not the older Banking Securities Act.
All three acts came into force on the same date: 1 July 2024. There was no staggered rollout.
What this means for pending and new matters
The cutoff is the date of the offence, not the date of filing or trial.
Offences alleged to have been committed before 1 July 2024 continue to be tried under the Indian Penal Code, the CrPC, and the Indian Evidence Act. Offences committed on or after that date fall under BNS, BNSS, and BSA.
This is not a technicality. It means courts are simultaneously running two complete criminal law regimes. A sessions court on any given day may hear one matter under IPC Section 302 and another under BNS Section 103. Both concern the offence of murder. The substantive outcome may be similar, but the applicable sections, procedure, timelines, and forms differ.
For advocates, the practical consequence is that you cannot assume which regime applies without checking the date of the alleged offence. Charging documents, bail applications, discharge petitions, and judgments all need to cite the correct statute. Citing the wrong one, even inadvertently, creates grounds for objection. This parallel running will continue for years, as older matters work through the system.
A note on section mapping
Most advocates have run into the IPC-to-BNS mapping question immediately. The sections did not carry over one-to-one. The BNS reorganised and renumbered the IPC provisions, combined some, and introduced a few new ones.
A few mappings are widely reported and appear consistent across official commentary:
| Offence | IPC section | BNS section | |---|---|---| | Murder | 302 | 103 | | Culpable homicide not amounting to murder | 304 | 105 | | Cheating | 420 | 318 | | Theft | 379 | 303 | | Robbery | 392 | 309 |
So if you were asking what murder section in BNS is, it is Section 103. The old 420 IPC in BNS is Section 318.
That said, the table above covers only a handful of sections. The full IPC had over 500 sections. Do not rely on any unofficial mapping table for a section you have not independently verified. Errors in section citation can affect framing of charges, bail, and sentencing arguments. The right practice is to check the actual text of the BNS, BNSS, or BSA before citing. NyayX's bare act library carries the full text of all three new acts, searchable by section number and keyword, which is faster than PDF scrolling when you are in court.
Structural changes worth knowing
Beyond renumbering, the new laws introduced several structural changes. The level of detail in official commentary varies, so what follows is a general account of what is consistently reported.
Timelines in investigation and trial. The BNSS specifies timelines for various stages of investigation and certain trial proceedings more explicitly than the old CrPC. The intent was to address delays, though how these timelines work in practice under court load is still being worked out. Check the relevant BNSS provisions directly rather than relying on summaries.
Organised crime and terrorism. The BNS brings provisions dealing with organised crime and terrorist acts into the main penal code, where these were earlier handled largely through special statutes. The scope and interaction with existing special laws involves questions that are still being litigated.
Electronic evidence and forensic procedures. The BSA explicitly addresses electronic records more fully than the old Evidence Act. The BNSS also contains provisions on electronic summons, digital records in investigation, and forensic requirements for serious offences. These are areas where the new law is meaningfully different from what it replaced.
Community service as sentence. The BNS introduces community service as a form of punishment for certain minor offences. This is new to the Indian penal code framework, though its practical implementation in terms of supervision and reporting is still developing.
Zero FIR. The BNSS codifies the concept of a zero FIR, allowing an FIR to be registered at any police station regardless of territorial jurisdiction, to be transferred subsequently. This was already in practice in some states following court directions, but it now has a statutory basis.
These are not the full extent of changes. The BNSS alone runs to several hundred sections. For anything beyond general orientation, the actual text of the provision is the only reliable reference.
The transition in filings and forms
Courts and police stations have been updating their forms and processes since July 2024. In practice, the transition has been uneven. You may encounter chargesheets, bail orders, or court notices that cite old section numbers for post-July 2024 offences, or vice versa. Some police stations took longer to update their FIR formats.
If you receive a document with a section citation that looks wrong given the date of the offence, verify before assuming it is an error. There have been cases of courts accepting the filing with a correction, and cases where the mismatch has been raised as a preliminary objection. The correct response depends on the facts and what is at stake.
For matters where the date of offence straddles the cutoff or is disputed, the choice of regime becomes a substantive question in itself.
In short
From 1 July 2024, three new criminal laws replaced the IPC, CrPC, and Evidence Act: BNS, BNSS, and BSA. The old laws still apply to all offences before that date, so both regimes run in parallel. The section numbering changed, a few widely-reported mappings are reliable, but the full mapping should be verified against the bare act before you cite it in court. The new laws also brought structural changes on timelines, electronic evidence, and procedure. The safest practice is to go to the primary text, which is available in full at NyayX's bare act library.