Law: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, Paper III (General Studies III), Unit III - Behavior and Law, Part B - Law:

• The Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023:
  Section 1
  Section 2 - Definition: Child, Court, Document, Gender, Good faith, Government, Judge, Person, Public, Public Servant, Valuable Security.
  Sections 189-191, 194-197, 270, 294-296
• The Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023:
  Section 1
  Section 2 - Definition: Audio-Video electronic means, Bail, Bailable offence and Non-Bailable offence, Bail-Bond, Bond, Charge, Cognizable offence, Complaint, Electronic communication, Inquiry, Investigation, Non-cognizable offence, Sub division, Summons Case, Warrant Case.
  Sections 3(2)(a), (b), 14-17, 41-43, 126-129, 148-149, 152, 163-167, 173, 174, 187, 194-196

Topics in detail

Background

• The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 replaced the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973; both came into force on 1 July 2024
• With them, the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 replaced the Indian Evidence Act, 1872

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita: section 2 definitions

• Child: a person below 18 years
• Gender: “he” and its forms refer to any person, male, female or transgender
• Good faith: done with due care and attention
• Person (includes a company or association), public, Government, court, judge, public servant
• Document and valuable security

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita: offences against public tranquillity (sections 189 to 197)

• Section 189: unlawful assembly (five or more persons with a common object such as resisting law or committing an offence)
• Section 190: every member guilty of an offence committed in pursuit of the common object
• Section 191: rioting, and rioting armed with deadly weapons
• Section 194: affray (fighting in a public place that disturbs public peace)
• Section 195: assaulting or obstructing a public servant suppressing a riot
• Section 196: promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and the like
• Section 197: imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration
• Sections 192 and 193 (provocation to riot, liability of owners of land) are not in the list

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita: public nuisance and obscenity

• Section 270: public nuisance
• Section 294: sale and other dealings in obscene books and objects, including electronic content
• Section 295: sale of obscene objects to a child
• Section 296: obscene acts and songs in or near a public place

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita: section 2 definitions

• New terms: audio-video electronic means, electronic communication, bail, bail bond
• Bailable and non-bailable offences; cognizable and non-cognizable offences (arrest with or without warrant)
• Charge, complaint, inquiry, investigation
• Summons case and warrant case (an offence punishable with death, life imprisonment or imprisonment above two years is a warrant case)
• Bond; sub-division

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita: Magistrates and arrest

• Section 3(2)(a) and (b): how references to Magistrates in other laws are to be read
• Sections 14 to 17: Executive Magistrates, the District Magistrate and Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Special Executive Magistrates, local jurisdiction, subordination to the District Magistrate
• Section 41: arrest by a Magistrate; section 42: protection of members of the Armed Forces from arrest; section 43: how an arrest is made (use of handcuffs in specified cases; arrest of women after sunset and before sunrise only in exceptional cases with a Magistrate's permission)

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita: maintaining public order

• Sections 126 to 129: security for keeping the peace and for good behaviour (from persons disseminating certain matters, suspected persons, habitual offenders)
• Sections 148 and 149: dispersal of an assembly by civil force and by the armed forces
• Section 152: conditional order for removal of a public nuisance
• Section 163: orders in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger (the old section 144 of the CrPC)
• Sections 164 to 167: disputes over land or water likely to cause a breach of the peace; attachment; rights of use; local inquiry

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita: information and investigation

• Section 173: information in cognizable cases (FIR), including by electronic communication, registration irrespective of area (zero FIR), preliminary enquiry in some cases, free copy to the informant
• Section 174: information about non-cognizable cases
• Section 187: procedure when investigation cannot be completed in 24 hours; remand and limits on detention
• Section 194: police inquiry and report on suicide and unnatural deaths; section 195: power to summon persons; section 196: inquiry by a Magistrate into the cause of death, including deaths in custody

Overlaps

Law and order work of the District Magistrate and police is in State and District Administration; the internal security side is in Dynamics of Indian Polity.