The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC) was the principal procedural Act governing the administration of criminal law in India. It provided the machinery for the investigation of crime, the apprehension of suspects, the collection of evidence, and the determination of guilt or innocence. The CrPC was enacted in 1973 and came into force on April 1, 1974, replacing the colonial-era Code of Criminal Procedure of 1898. This post-independence revision, informed by the Law Commission's 41st Report (1969), aimed to modernize the system and ensure a fair trial.
The CrPC contained 484 sections across 37 Chapters and two Schedules, detailing the entire process from the reporting of a crime to the final appeal. Its mechanism included the mandatory registration of a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 154 for cognizable offences, procedures for arrest (Section 41), and the separation of the judiciary from the executive. The CrPC formed the procedural tripod alongside the substantive law, the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC), and the law of evidence, the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
The CrPC has recently been replaced by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023. The BNSS, 2023, received the President's assent on December 25, 2023, and is set to take effect from July 1, 2024, along with the new substantive and evidence laws. The core function of providing a procedural framework remains, but the BNSS introduces changes focusing on modernization, digital procedures, and forensic support.