Indian Polity Quiz: New Criminal Laws: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, BNSS and BSA

Section 84 of the Indian Penal Code was the general exception for the act of a person of unsound mind: nothing is an offence which is done by a person who, at the time of doing it, by reason of unsoundness of mind is incapable of knowing the nature of…

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 is the substantive criminal law of India and it took the place of the Indian Penal Code drafted on the recommendation of the First Law Commission under Lord Macaulay.

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam were all brought into force together on 1 July 2024 by notifications of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the punishment for murder, which was Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, is now Section 103, and it prescribes death or imprisonment for life, and also a fine.

Section 4 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita lists the punishments to which offenders are liable, and community service appears in that list for the first time in Indian criminal law.

The Adhiniyam is the law of evidence and it places electronic and digital records on the same footing as paper documents, so that such a record is admissible as primary evidence and the definition of a document expressly covers e-mails, server logs, computer files, locational evidence and messages stored on…

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita carries 358 sections, while the Indian Penal Code which it replaced had 511 sections; chapters were merged and several obsolete offences were removed, so the number came down.

Sedition as it stood in Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code has not been carried into the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

A Zero FIR is registered without a regular serial number at any police station when information about a cognizable offence is given there, and it is then transferred to the police station having jurisdiction over the place of the offence, where it gets a regular number.

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita makes forensic investigation compulsory for offences punishable with imprisonment of seven years or more: a forensic expert must visit the scene of crime, collect the forensic evidence and record the process on a mobile phone or another electronic device.

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita requires a court to pronounce its judgment within forty-five days of the completion of the trial, with a further short extension allowed for reasons recorded in writing.