Since 1 July 2024, India's criminal law has operated under a new framework — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam — replacing the colonial-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, and Indian Evidence Act. Nearly two years later, courts continue to encounter cases where an alleged offence predates the switch but procedural steps occur after it, forcing repeated adjudication on which law applies.
This recurring seam matters constitutionally because criminal liability and procedure must rest on clear, non-arbitrary rules of applicability, especially given protections against retrospective criminal liability. The Supreme Court's regular case round-ups show this is not a one-off transitional glitch but a sustained interpretive challenge for magistrates, prosecutors, and defence counsel alike, going to the heart of legal certainty in criminal justice.
For exam purposes: remember the three old codes (IPC 1860, CrPC 1973, Evidence Act 1872) and their replacements (BNS, BNSS, BNS Adhiniyam 2023), effective from 1 July 2024. Note that the transition itself has generated a distinct, recurring category of Supreme Court litigation on temporal applicability of old versus new criminal law.