Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
Section 531 BNSS - Repeal and Savings
Updated: 12 September 2026
Section 531 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) repeals the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC), while preserving specified pending proceedings, existing legal instruments, sanctions and limitation positions during the transition from CrPC to BNSS.
What Section 531 BNSS means
Section 531 is a repeal-and-savings clause. Its purpose is to replace the CrPC, 1973 for the future while preventing disruption to proceedings and legal acts that already existed when the BNSS commenced.
| Part of Section 531 | Effect |
|---|---|
| Section 531(1) | Repeals the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. |
| Section 531(2)(a) | Pending appeal, application, trial, inquiry or investigation immediately before commencement continues under the CrPC, 1973 as it stood before BNSS commenced. |
| Section 531(2)(b) | Existing notifications, proclamations, powers, forms, local jurisdictions, sentences, orders, rules and specified appointments under CrPC continue by being treated as made under the corresponding BNSS provisions. |
| Section 531(2)(c) | A sanction or consent already granted under CrPC, even where proceedings had not yet commenced, is treated as sanction or consent under the corresponding BNSS provision. |
| Section 531(3) | BNSS does not revive an application or proceeding whose limitation period had already expired on or before commencement merely because BNSS allows a longer period or extension of time. |
Pending proceedings continue under the CrPC
The most important transition rule is Section 531(2)(a). If an appeal, application, trial, inquiry or investigation was already pending immediately before the BNSS came into force, that matter is to be disposed of, continued, held or made in accordance with the CrPC, 1973, as if the BNSS had not come into force.
Existing orders, notifications and powers are preserved
Section 531(2)(b) avoids the need to reissue a wide range of legal and administrative instruments solely because the procedural code changed. Subject to the wording of the provision, qualifying notifications, proclamations, conferred powers, prescribed forms, local jurisdictions, sentences, orders, rules and appointments already in force are deemed to operate under the corresponding BNSS provisions.
Sanction or consent already granted under CrPC
Under Section 531(2)(c), a sanction accorded or consent given under the CrPC remains effective even where no proceeding had yet commenced under that Code. It is deemed to have been granted under the corresponding BNSS provision, and proceedings may be commenced under BNSS on that basis.
Expired limitation is not revived
Section 531(3) prevents a time-barred application or proceeding from being revived merely because the BNSS prescribes a longer period or contains provisions permitting extension of time. If the applicable period under the CrPC had already expired on or before commencement of BNSS, Section 531(3) preserves that expired position.
Text of Section 531 - Repeal and savings
531. (1) The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 is hereby repealed.
(2) Notwithstanding such repeal-
(a) if, immediately before the date on which this Sanhita comes into force, there is any appeal, application, trial, inquiry or investigation pending, then, such appeal, application, trial, inquiry or investigation shall be disposed of, continued, held or made, as the case may be, in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, as in force immediately before such commencement (hereinafter referred to as the said Code), as if this Sanhita had not come into force;
(b) all notifications published, proclamations issued, powers conferred, forms provided by rules, local jurisdictions defined, sentences passed and orders, rules and appointments, not being appointments as Special Magistrates, made under the said Code and which are in force immediately before the commencement of this Sanhita, shall be deemed, respectively, to have been published, issued, conferred, specified, defined, passed or made under the corresponding provisions of this Sanhita;
(c) any sanction accorded or consent given under the said Code in pursuance of which no proceeding was commenced under that Code, shall be deemed to have been accorded or given under the corresponding provisions of this Sanhita and proceedings may be commenced under this Sanhita in pursuance of such sanction or consent.
(3) Where the period specified for an application or other proceeding under the said Code had expired on or before the commencement of this Sanhita, nothing in this Sanhita shall be construed as enabling any such application to be made or proceeding to be commenced under this Sanhita by reason only of the fact that a longer period therefor is specified by this Sanhita or provisions are made in this Sanhita for the extension of time.
Official legal references
For authoritative text and commencement information, refer to the official India Code publication of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and the Ministry of Home Affairs commencement notification dated 23 February 2024.
Disclaimer: This page is for legal information and general reference. Application of Section 531 can depend on the procedural stage and facts of a particular matter.