Published On: August 17th 2025
Authored By: Vanshika Vaishalik
Galgotias University
ABSTRACT
The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) has superseded the colonial Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, marking a dramatic shift in India’s criminal justice system. It aims to create a contemporary, technologically sophisticated, and citizen-centric judicial system to address the historical inefficiencies and delays in criminal adjudication. The time bound protocols, which ensure investigations are finished within predetermined timelines and trials proceed swiftly through e-justice tools like video conferencing, e-summons, and e-FIR, are a crucial part of the BNSS. This digital integration also extends to forensic mandates, which call for crime scene forensic investigations for offenses carrying a sentence of seven years or more in order to increase the accuracy and accountability of the evidence.
The BNSS also includes aspects of reformative justice, such as community service as an alternative to temporary incarceration and the use of organized plea-bargaining frameworks, to encourage rehabilitation and jail decongestion. Stronger rights for the accused, such as the right to counsel during questioning and the right to a timely medical evaluation after incarceration, gender-neutral terminology, and provisions for legal aid access are examples of improved procedural safeguards. However, the bill also significantly expands police powers, including mandatory digital device seizures, extended police custody, pre-trial property attachment, and broader warrantless arrests, which raise concerns about potential abuse and erode constitutional rights.
INTRODUCTION
With the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), India’s criminal justice system is undergoing a significant transformation with the goal of improving efficiency and public safety while modernizing, digitizing, and humanizing criminal procedures. It went into effect on July 1, 2024, after being approved by Parliament on December 20 and 21, 2023, and receiving presidential assent on December 25. The BNSS takes the place of the colonial-era 1973 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The development of a citizen-centric framework that prioritizes speed, accessibility, and clarity is its central principle. In order to bring India’s criminal proceedings firmly into the digital age, this is demonstrated by the use of gender-neutral and simplified terminology, clear deadlines for the investigation and trial, and mandatory e-FIRs, e-summons, digital evidence recording, and virtual hearings.
BNSS imposes time-bound regulations, such as charges being framed within 60 days and final judgments being rendered within 30, in order to minimize persistent delays and pendency. Forensic teams are also stationed at crime scenes for offenses carrying sentences of seven years or longer. These responsibilities might be increased under extraordinary situations. Additionally, by mandating victim updates every ninety days, it institutionalizes court obligation. The BNSS which promises a justice system that is time efficient, citizen-forward, digitally empowered, and somewhat restorative, essentially represents a paradigm shift in India’s institutional development. However, in order to prevent empowerment from becoming overreach, its increased prosecution capabilities need for cautious limitations and balanced judicial scrutiny.The long-term effectiveness of the reform depends on ongoing court review, interagency cooperation, and civil society involvement as countries advance their digital capabilities, infrastructure, and training. These actions will ultimately determine if BNSS provides a really safe, equitable, and timely legal system for all Indians.
AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK WITH AN EMPHASIS ON TECHNOLOGY AND CITIZENS
The BNSS marks a substantial departure from India’s colonial past by placing digitization and citizen-centricity at the core of its criminal justice systems. In order to expedite case processing while preserving procedural integrity, the code integrates technology at all key points of interaction, based on the notion that justice should be more readily available, visible, and efficient.
1. Digital First Strike: e-FIRs and e-Summons
Filing a FIR in person at a police station is no longer an option. E-FIRs allow citizens to register complaints online, expanding their reach and speed. This invention reduces the need for intermediaries and expedites formal notification when paired with e-summons, which courts may issue directly and track online. Haryana is an excellent illustration of this change, since over 91% of summonses are now sent electronically, speeding up court proceedings and enabling public access.
2. Audio-Video Standards for the Integrity of Evidence
Throughout criminal procedures, BNSS mandates that audio-video electronic means be used consistently: By documenting searches and seizures on mobile devices and forwarding them to the court magistrate, transparency must be guaranteed from the moment of entry. Audio-video deposition of witnesses, defendants, public servants, and experts in session cases is permitted under specific conditions, enhancing the reliability of the testimony and the correctness of the paperwork. Test identifications are also recorded on camera to prevent coercion and ensure the clarity of the evidence. Together, these provisions strengthen the integrity of the evidence and reduce disputes about authenticity and tampering.
3. Virtual Justice: Online Trials & Designated Sites
Beyond remote evidence, BNSS enshrines e-justice: Section 530 permits electronic trials, investigations, depositions, and other processes. Certain places, such as government offices, banks, hospitals, jails, and video-enabled court centres, make it easier for witnesses and under trials to participate via audio-video link. Haryana has enabled 50–70% of police and accused individuals to participate remotely through more than 2,117 such venues, significantly cutting down on time and logistical expenses.
TIME LIMITED INVESTIGATIONS AND LEGAL PROCESS
The BNSS creates a rigorously regulated timeline for the various stages of criminal procedures in an effort to drastically reduce delays and provide justice faster. It features a time-bound architecture that includes phases for investigation, committal, pre-trial, trial, and judgment:
1. Necessary Investigation Timelines : According to Section 193 of the BNSS:Final investigative reports must be filed within sixty days of the Press Information Bureau receiving the FIR in cases with sentences of less than ten years; reports must be submitted within ninety days after the FIR in cases with sentences of more than ten years, life in prison, or death. Unless there are established reasons, courts are required to stop investigations if the accused has escaped after six months. An electronic progress report must be sent to informants and victims every 90 days. The goal of these actions is to lessen the length of investigations, which are a recurring problem in India’s criminal justice system.
2. Timelines for Pre-trial and Charge-Framing: Within 14 days of the accused and victim’s appearance, courts are required to provide them with police reports and other pertinent documentation. The accused has 60 days from the date the case is committed to Sessions Court to submit a discharge motion under Section 250. Both Sessions and Magistrate courts require that charges be framed within 60 days after the initial hearing on charges following the denial of release. The frequent trial delays brought on by adjournments are addressed by prompt charge framing.
3. Procedures for Commitment: For cases that can only be handled in Sessions Court, magistrates must commit cases within 90 days of taking cognizance; this time can be extended to 180 days only with valid reasons. This ensures a seamless transition between the magistrate-level probe and the full Sessions trial.
4. Schedules for Trials and Decisions: When the trial begins: Although there may be a 45-day extension provided the reasons are established, the final arguments and decision must be finished within 30 days.
Courts are required to upload decision copies to a portal within seven days of delivery.
These ensure that trials are finished sooner rather than later.
INCREASED POLICE POWERS: ISSUES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The BNSS significantly increases police powers by allowing warrantless arrests, extended police custody, digital device seizures, and pre-trial property attachment, which raise serious concerns about potential abuse and human rights breaches. If police have a reasonable suspicion that someone is involved in a crime, even if they were not there when the crime was committed, they may arrest them under Section 35 without a warrant. This is well outside the purview of the CrPC. Even while the law exempts elderly or disabled people who are suspected of minor infractions, the threshold for such arrests is nonetheless broadly defined.
Additionally, the BNSS grants judges the power to grant up to 15 days of police custody and eliminates the existing CrPC restriction that detention must occur within the first two weeks following an arrest. The judicial custody timeline allows for this to be served gradually over a period of 40–60 days (60 or 90 days, depending on the seriousness of the offense). This extensive discretion has come under fire for promoting coercion, torturing, and undermining the right to bail because it can be employed at any time during the detention period without the need for fresh proof.
Even though the BNSS includes constitutional protections like requiring that arrestees be informed of charges and given immediate access to counsel and a medical examination, courts have already ruled that arrests were invalid when the grounds were not properly communicated, highlighting persistent procedural violations.Under a law that should protect citizens rather than grant the state undue power, critics argue that the code’s increased police power is accompanied by a lack of sufficient structural restraints, open oversight, or enforcement mechanisms, raising concerns about arbitrary detention, dilution of due process, and erosion of privacy rights.
STRUCTURAL INNOVATIONS AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
1. Community Service: An Alternative to Restructuring
Under Section 4(f) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the BNSS formally introduces community service as a recognized form of punishment, in contrast to the purely punitive methods of the past. Depending on the offender’s abilities and the gravity of the offense, judges can impose 40–240 hours of unpaid community service (or 1–31 days) under this mechanism, which is designed for minor, non-violent offenses like public intoxication, defamation, petty theft or first-time protest participation.
2. Restorative Justice in Practice
In accordance with Section 4(f), which prioritizes civic restoration over jail for non-violent offenders, police utilized the BNSS’s community service provisions to assign over 30 first-time offenders to clean up roads and repair damage during the June 2025 protests in Manipur. This case illustrates the tangible benefits of restorative justice: offenders make amends for the harm they have caused to the community, and their criminal histories do not hinder their prospects for the future.
3. Judicial Discretion & the Structural Framework
By codifying community service, the BNSS transfers implementation responsibility to local and judicial authorities. The act leaves specific parameters up to administrative regulations and judicial interpretation, but courts make the final decision on whether community service is appropriate in each case either alone or in conjunction with jail time or penalties. Although this adaptable methodology promotes customized sentencing, it also adds unpredictability, necessitating precise procedural guidelines to guarantee fair and efficient use.
4. Plea Bargaining: Quick Settlements
The plea bargaining process (Sections 289–300 BNSS), which expands the CrPC paradigm with improved clarity and procedural limits, is another structural innovation.Within 30 days of the charge being framed, eligible accused—first-time offenders facing up to 7 years in jail, barring socioeconomic offenses or crimes against women or children—must submit an application.
IMPLEMENTATION OF BNSS
The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) has drastically altered India’s approach to criminal justice, with early adopters like Haryana and Chandigarh setting benchmarks for training, digital integration, and expedited case results. With more than 54,000 police personnel having undergone extensive training in the BNSS and its companion statutes, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sakshya Adhiniyam, Haryana boasts one of the largest legal skilling programs in the nation. Furthermore, more than 37,800 officers have completed the iGOT Karmayogi platform’s e-learning modules.
Chandigarh, the first Union Territory to fully operationalize the BNSS, recorded 3,154 FIRs (nearly half e-FIRs), 758 charge sheets filed, and 71 convictions from 78 resolved cases, yielding a 91.1 percent conviction rate. The average resolution time was 110 days, which is significantly shorter than the 300 days previously.
A framework for regional policy coordination is also emerging as judicial norms, including as SOPs for handling organized crime in Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh, are being developed to standardize BNSS procedures. Although Chandigarh’s PCR fleet expansion highlights efforts to enhance ground enforcement and accountability, sustained investment, interagency collaboration, on going training, and effective public awareness campaigns will be required to scale success globally.
CONCLUSION
The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) is a revolutionary change in India’s criminal justice system, substituting a technology-driven, citizen-focused framework for the colonial-era CrPC. With over 91% of e-summons issued, completely recorded searches and seizures, video-enabled centers, and markedly better conviction rates and trial schedules, early adopters like Haryana and Chandigarh have shown the promise of the code. Chandigarh achieved a conviction rate of 91.1% while cutting the average resolution time from 300 to 110 days, and Haryana claimed speedy adjudications in serious crimes.
But BNSS also raises significant points expanded police power, including warrantless arrests, 15-day staggered police custody, sweeping device seizures, and pre-trial property attachments, raises a risk of rights erosion in the absence of robust judicial correction. Trial-in-absentia clause challenges are one example of a constitutional case that emphasizes the need for careful interpretation in order to protect the right to a fair trial. The Madras High Court’s involvement in the Ponmudy case serves as an example of how high court scrutiny demonstrates BNSS’s internal checks. There are now formalized channels for higher-level redress, and public entities must notify complainants when a matter is closed.
These three pillars judicial vigilance, administrative coordination, and civil society participation support BNSS, which has the potential to create a criminal justice system that is efficient, open, and just. Its term, Nagarik Suraksha, will only have true significance if it actually improves citizen security and upholds constitutional protections.
References
1. Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, Act No. 45 of 2023, Government of India.
2. Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, Act No. 2 of 1974, Government of India.
3. PRS Legislative Research, “The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023,” Bill Track, 2023.
4. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, “New Criminal Laws,” Official Website, 2024.
5. Nishith Desai Associates, “Navigating Through Criminal Law Reforms: Part II – Review of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023,” Legal Analysis, 2024.
6. Standing Committee on Home Affairs, “Report on the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023,” Parliament of India, 2023.
7. Bureau of Police Research and Development, “Comparison Summary BNSS to CrPC,” Ministry of Home Affairs, 2024.
8. LegalOnus, “Bail Provision Under BNSS, 2023,” Legal Commentary, July 2024.
9. The Legal Lock, “Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023: A Comprehensive Analysis of India’s Criminal Justice Reform,” March 2025.
10. SCC Online, “Provisions of CrPC and not of Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (BNSS) will apply to a pending investigation prior to 01-07-2024: Bombay High Court,” August 2024.
