Old Code, New Code: How Indian Courts Are Handling the IPC-to-BNS Transition

With the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita now in force alongside a residual body of IPC and CrPC cases, Supreme Court rulings are increasingly turning on which law applies to which case — and why.

India's criminal justice system is in a transition phase, with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) now operating alongside a residual body of cases still governed by the older Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Courts are increasingly deciding not just guilt or innocence but a threshold question: which code applies to a given case, especially where an offence was recorded under the IPC but trial began after the new codes came into force.

This matters constitutionally because criminal liability and procedure must be certain and non-arbitrary; applying the wrong code, or applying a new procedural law retrospectively in ways that prejudice the accused, raises due process concerns. Such disputes are now surfacing in High Court and Supreme Court judgments as transitional criminal procedure questions.

For exam purposes, remember that the IPC/CrPC-to-BNS/BNSS shift has created a recurring category of litigation on applicability of old versus new criminal law, reflected in recent Supreme Court digests.