BNSS vs CrPC: A Practical Working Guide

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), Act No. 46 of 2023, came into force on 1 July 2024 alongside the BNS, replacing the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. It restructures criminal procedure across 531 sections and 36 chapters - noticeably larger than the CrPC's 484 sections, reflecting new procedural steps that didn't exist before rather than pure renumbering.

FIR registration - CrPC Section 154 - is now BNSS Section 173, and the section itself now explicitly provides for reporting a cognizable offence electronically, not just orally or in writing, at any police station regardless of where the offence occurred (the 'zero FIR' principle). Where information is given electronically, BNSS Section 173 requires it to be signed by the informant within three days for it to be taken on record.

This closes a real practical gap: zero FIR existed as police-guideline practice before 2024, but the BNSS gives it an explicit statutory basis rather than relying on internal circulars.

BNSS Section 187 sets a default expectation that investigation and chargesheet filing be completed within ninety days for serious offences and sixty days for lesser ones - a concrete deadline with no direct CrPC equivalent. Separately, Section 193(3) requires the investigating officer to update the victim on investigation progress within ninety days.

For cognizable offences punishable with three to seven years' imprisonment, an officer may first conduct a preliminary enquiry (with a superior officer's permission) to establish a prima facie case within fourteen days before formally proceeding - a screening step intended to reduce indiscriminate registration of cases in that punishment band.

As with the BNS, the governing rule is the date the relevant procedural act took place, not the case's overall timeline - a matter registered before 1 July 2024 generally continues under the CrPC's procedural framework for its remaining stages, while a new complaint today proceeds under the BNSS from FIR onward. Confirming which procedural code actually governs a given stage of a pending matter is a threshold check worth doing explicitly, not assuming.