Ask anyone what Section 302 is and they will tell you murder. Ask what 420 is and they will tell you cheating. Both answers stopped being right for new cases on 1 July 2024. The offences did not go anywhere — the numbers everyone had memorised for generations did.
On 1 July 2024 the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam replaced the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act, renumbering most offences, modernising procedure, and putting electronic records squarely into the law of evidence.
The bottom line
What changed for you as a citizen: Zero FIR and e-FIR, so you can start the process at any police station, or electronically, without being in the "right" jurisdiction.
What changed for a business: old IPC section numbers in your contracts, policies and legal notices are now wrong, and your emails and server logs matter more than they used to.
What did not change: anything that happened before 1 July 2024. Those offences are still tried under the old laws.
The three codes
- Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 replaces the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Substantive law: what is a crime and what it carries.
- Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 replaces the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Procedure: arrest, investigation, bail, trial.
- Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), 2023 replaces the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. What a court can look at, and how.
Why it was done
The stated aim was to move the system's philosophy from punishment towards justice, to shed colonial-era language and offences, and to bring criminal procedure into the digital age.
Whatever view you take of how far that succeeded, the practical consequence is the same for everyone: a long transition in which old cases run on old law, new cases run on new law, and the section numbers that lawyers and police used by reflex all moved.
What changed in the substantive law
- Familiar offences, new numbers. Murder, cheating, theft and the rest survive, renumbered and regrouped, with offences against women and children brought together more coherently.
- Terrorism is defined in the general penal code for the first time, rather than only in special statutes.
- Organised crime and petty organised crime are now distinct offences.
- Community service appears as a punishment for certain minor offences — a genuinely new idea in Indian penal law.
- Mob lynching based on identity markers is a specific offence carrying severe punishment.
What changed in procedure
- Zero FIR. Register an FIR at any police station regardless of where the offence happened; it is transferred to the correct jurisdiction afterwards.
- e-FIR. Certain complaints can be registered electronically, removing the need to physically reach a station.
- Time-bound steps. Deadlines now apply to stages such as filing the charge sheet and pronouncing judgment.
- Mandatory forensics for serious offences, with videography of search and seizure.
- Victim rights. Victims are entitled to be kept informed about the progress of the investigation.
Zero FIR is the change most likely to matter to an ordinary person. Being told to go to a different police station was, for decades, where a great many complaints quietly died. Knowing you cannot lawfully be turned away is worth more than knowing any section number.
What changed in evidence
The BSA formally accepts the digital world. Electronic and digital records — emails, server logs, location data, messages — are recognised as primary evidence, with rules governing their admissibility.
For investigations this is significant. For businesses it is a quiet obligation, because evidence that is admissible in principle is useless if it was deleted under a 90-day retention policy nobody thought about.
What businesses should actually do
Three things follow from the change.
Cheating and fraud, the offences that surface most often in commercial disputes, have been renumbered. Contracts, employment policies and template legal notices that cite IPC sections need updating, and a notice citing a repealed section invites an argument you did not need to have.
Electronic evidence now carries real weight, which raises the stakes on data retention, email hygiene and audit trails. Records that survive are the ones that prove your case.
The organised crime provisions widen exposure in matters involving coordinated economic offences, which is worth understanding before it becomes relevant.
A worked example
An employee discovers a fraud and wants to report it, but the branch involved is in another city. Under the BNSS they can walk into their local police station and register a Zero FIR. It is recorded immediately and transferred to the correct jurisdiction, rather than being refused at the desk.
If the matter proceeds, the company's emails and server logs are clearly admissible as electronic evidence under the BSA — provided the business still has them.
Common mistakes
- Assuming old cases disappeared. Offences committed before 1 July 2024 continue under the IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act.
- Assuming the crimes themselves were abolished. Most were renumbered, not removed.
- Citing IPC section numbers in fresh notices and contracts out of habit.
- Underestimating how central electronic evidence has become, and destroying it on a routine retention schedule.
Frequently asked questions
Do old cases get re-tried under the new laws? No. Offences committed before 1 July 2024 continue under the IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act. The new codes apply to offences from that date onward.
Is the section for murder really different now? Yes. The offence continues but the numbering changed, so the old section numbers do not apply to new cases.
Can I really file an FIR anywhere? Yes. Zero FIR is now firmly in the BNSS. Register at any police station and it is transferred to the proper jurisdiction.
Do I need to update my contracts? Yes, wherever they cite IPC or CrPC sections. The references are to repealed provisions.
What is community service used for? It is available as a punishment for certain minor offences, and it is the first time Indian penal law has provided for it.