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On 1 July 2024, the three pillars of India’s colonial-era criminal justice system retired together. The Indian Penal Code of 1860, the Criminal Procedure Code of 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872 gave way to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) — three laws written in India, for India, after one hundred and sixty-three years of borrowed vocabulary.

The overhaul belongs to the same code-replacement era as the four labour codes in force since November 2025 and the welfare-employment statute mapped in our VB-G RAM-G explainer. This brief compresses the trio — structure, substance, procedure, evidence and the debates — into one revision card for prelims and mains alike.

What Actually Changed on 1 July 2024

Locate the reform in four lines before the detail — the what, the scale, the philosophy and the setting.

1. The headliner. Three new criminal codes replaced the IPC, the CrPC and the Evidence Act in one stroke, ending the strongest continuities of colonial criminal law.
2. The scale. The exercise re-wrote substance (BNS), procedure (BNSS) and proof (BSA) at once — roughly one thousand and fifty-nine sections of new law in a single day.
3. The philosophy. Home Minister Amit Shah pitched the codes as delivering justice rather than punishment, with timelines, technology and traceability built into the text.
4. The setting. The trio fits the larger legislative season that also produced the labour-code consolidation and the 2025 tax-and-welfare recodes examined elsewhere on this site.

The Three Sanhitas at a Glance

The matching table every prelims paper loves — law, number, size and the statute it replaces.

1. The Justice Code. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Act 45 of 2023 — the substantive penal law, in 20 chapters and 358 sections, repealing the Indian Penal Code of 1860.
2. The Procedure Code. Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Act 46 of 2023 — criminal procedure in 39 chapters and 531 sections plus two schedules, repealing the Criminal Procedure Code of 1973.
3. The Evidence Code. Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, Act 47 of 2023 — 170 sections against the old Act’s 167, repealing the Indian Evidence Act of 1872.
4. The common birthday. All three were introduced by Amit Shah on 11 August 2023, re-introduced as Second Bills on 12 December, passed by both Houses on 20–21 December, and assented to on 25 December 2023.
5. The single switch-on date. All three commenced together on 1 July 2024 — one morning, three codes, zero grace period.
6. The naming logic. Justice, citizen security and evidence — the names themselves encode the intended shift from punishment to a citizen-first justice pipeline.

From Bill to Law: The 2023 Timetable

An eight-month legislative sprint with one mid-course correction — memorise the double introduction.

1. 11 August 2023. Shah introduces the first BNS, BNSS and BSA Bills in the Lok Sabha, announcing that the offence of sedition will go.
2. The committee detour. The Bills go to parliamentary standing-committee scrutiny; reports are adopted, and the original Bills are withdrawn.
3. 12 December 2023. Corrected versions return the same day as the (Second) Sanhita Bills — a withdrawal and re-introduction within hours.
4. 20–21 December 2023. The Lok Sabha passes all three on 20 December; the Rajya Sabha follows on 21 December, each by voice vote.
5. 25 December 2023 and 1 July 2024. President Droupadi Murmu assents on Christmas Day; the codes commence six months later, giving courts and police one transition window.

Inside the BNS: The Substantive Shifts

The penal arithmetic first, then the marquee changes — every number here is a statement question.

1. The arithmetic. 20 new offences added, 19 dropped, imprisonment raised for 33 offences, fines raised for 83, mandatory minimums introduced for 23, and community service for six.
2. The sedition swap. The colonial offence of sedition is removed, replaced by acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
3. The new entrants. Organised crime and terrorism enter the penal code for the first time, alongside murder or grievous hurt by a group on certain grounds.
4. The digital economy crimes. Cybercrime and financial fraud join the property chapter — offences the 1860 code simply could not imagine.
5. The public-order additions. Environmental pollution and human trafficking are elevated as named new offences against the public.
6. The threshold tweak. For classifying a gang-rape victim as an adult, the age threshold rises from 16 to 18 years.
7. The reformative note. Community service debuts as a punishment for petty offences such as defamation and public intoxication — rehabilitation over overcrowding.
8. The constants. Murder, rape, stalking, voyeurism, theft and cheating survive with their IPC architecture largely intact — continuity is the quiet story of the code.

Inside the BNSS: Procedure Rewritten

The citizen-facing code — where FIRs, arrests and timelines live.

1. The Zero FIR. Section 173 gives statutory recognition to the Zero FIR: any station must register a cognizable offence complaint and transfer it to the jurisdictional station.
2. The electronic doorway. Information about a cognizable offence may now be given orally or electronically — the paperwork of policing goes digital by design.
3. The filter. For cognizable offences punishable by three to seven years, a preliminary inquiry is mandated before an FIR — expressly superseding the Supreme Court’s Lalita Kumari rule of 2013.
4. The arrest safeguards. Full particulars of the offence must be communicated on arrest, and the arrested person must be medically examined promptly.
5. The squeeze points. Bail becomes harder to secure and plea bargaining narrows — the criticisms most cited by defence lawyers.
6. The police upgrades. Investigators may compel an accused to produce digital devices, and may seek seizure or attachment of property even before trial.
7. The clocks. Investigations and trials must complete within specified time periods — the bid to kill the thirty-year-case culture.

Inside the BSA: Evidence Goes Digital

The smallest code carries the biggest conceptual change — proof itself is re-defined.

1. The structure. 170 sections against the old 167, with 23 sections modified, five removed and one brand-new section added.
2. The digital turn. Electronic records gain explicit statutory recognition as primary evidence — WhatsApp trails, CCTV and device data move from afterthought to centrepiece.
3. The continuity. The 1872 architecture of relevance, admissions and expert opinion survives; this is modernisation, not demolition.
4. The criticism. Commentators warn the Adhiniyam makes defence harder while easing the prosecution’s path with potentially dubious electronic material.
5. The exam hook. Pair the three numbers — 358, 531, 170 — with three repealed acts; that single line answers most prelims questions on the trio.

The Big Debate: Promise versus Concern

Decolonisation in name, continuitity in substance? The critics’ file is thick.

1. The retained exception. The marital rape exception survives untouched — the loudest single critique of an otherwise rewritten sexual-offences chapter.
2. The retained phrase. ‘Outraging the modesty of women’ stays; the chance to adopt gender-neutral ‘sexual assault’ language is not taken.
3. The protection gaps. The BNS still contains no offence of rape of men or transgender persons — a gap the old section 377 jurisprudence once partly covered.
4. The sovereignty worry. The replacement for sedition is called ambiguous, with the potential to curtail free speech and stifle dissent in practice.
5. The police-power question. Harder bail, narrower plea bargaining, forced device production and pre-trial attachment all tilt leverage toward investigators.
6. The verdict in progress. Legal scholars note that the justice-oriented stated intent is yet to show in delivery — the real audit will be the first decade of caselaw.

How Exams Probe This Topic

Match the pairs, count the sections, date the ladder — and prepare one mains essay on decolonisation.

1. The triple match. BNS to IPC 1860, BNSS to CrPC 1973, BSA to Evidence Act 1872 — the single most bankable matching question of the season.
2. The number triple. 358, 531 and 170 sections respectively, with the BSA’s 23 modified, 5 removed, 1 added as a bonus layer.
3. The date ladder. Introduced 11 August, re-introduced 12 December, passed 20–21 December, assented 25 December 2023, in force 1 July 2024.
4. The concept pair. Zero FIR and the 3-to-7-year preliminary-inquiry filter — one widening access, the other narrowing automatic registration.
5. The mains frame. Judge the reform against the wholesale-punitive era it anchors: criminal codes (this brief), the four labour codes in force since November 2025, and the welfare recode in our VB-G RAM-G explainer — then weigh continuity versus change.
6. The companion act. For examination fraud specifically, pair the BNS with the anti-paper-leak amendment of 2026 chronicled in our Anti-Paper Leak Act brief — punitive reform compounding punitive reform.

Quick Revision: One-Glance Facts

Carry these to the hall — the entire trio folds into one card.

1. The acts. BNS = Act 45 of 2023, BNSS = Act 46 of 2023, BSA = Act 47 of 2023 — consecutive numbers, one birthday.
2. The sections. 358 (BNS), 531 (BNSS), 170 (BSA); the BNSS adds two schedules.
3. The repeals. IPC 1860, CrPC 1973, Indian Evidence Act 1872 — all retired 1 July 2024.
4. The man and the months. Amit Shah introduced the trio on 11 August 2023; Parliament cleared them in a single December week minus one day.
5. The sedition swap. Sedition out; acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity in.
6. The firsts. Community service as a punishment, Zero FIR as a statutory right, electronic records as primary evidence.
7. The arithmetic card. 20 added, 19 dropped, 33 longer sentences, 83 higher fines, 23 minimums, 6 community-service offences.

Conclusion: One Era Ends, Another Is Audited

The 2024 criminal-law overhaul is best read as re-plumbing, not revolution: the pipes are Indian, the water largely familiar. The BNS keeps the IPC’s skeleton while adding the offences of this century; the BNSS digitises the citizen’s doorway while quietly strengthening the constable’s hand; the BSA makes the screen a witness. For prelims, the trio is a gift — three acts, three numbers, one date. For mains, the real question is whether justice-oriented rhetoric survives contact with harder bail and broader police powers. Learn the card, watch the caselaw, and this topic is full marks banked.

Gayatree

Author of the Article above