India’s New Criminal Laws Explained: BNS, BNSS and BSA for International Readers

On 1 July 2024, India replaced its three core colonial-era criminal statutes, the Indian Penal Code (1860), the Code of Criminal Procedure (1973), and the Indian Evidence Act (1872), with three new codes. For anyone researching Indian criminal law, knowing which regime applies to which period matters, since the old codes still govern offences committed before the changeover.

The three new codes

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 replaces the Indian Penal Code and defines substantive offences, murder, theft, defamation, and so on, renumbering and in places restructuring the old sections.

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 replaces the Code of Criminal Procedure and governs arrest, investigation, bail, trial procedure and sentencing process.

The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), 2023 replaces the Indian Evidence Act and governs what evidence is admissible and how it is proved, including new provisions explicitly addressing electronic and digital evidence.

What actually changed, beyond renumbering

Much of the new codes preserve the substance of the old ones with renumbered sections, but there are real additions: new offences (organized crime and terrorism provisions previously spread across special statutes are now consolidated into the BNS), stricter timelines for investigation and trial under the BNSS, explicit provision for electronic FIRs, video-recorded search and seizure, and community service as a sentencing option for minor offences for the first time in the general criminal code.

Why this matters for comparative or doctrinal research

A paper or thesis chapter analyzing Indian criminal law written using only IPC section numbers without noting the 2024 transition will read as outdated to an Indian reader. Comparative researchers should also note that the new codes retain, rather than reform, several provisions that Indian scholars themselves have criticized, so the renaming did not resolve every underlying doctrinal debate.

Lexfolio’s free guides carry detailed subject notes on the new codes (part of the LLB notes library), and the certificate courses on labour and governance topics reference the current codes throughout rather than the repealed ones.