The BNSS replaced the CrPC on 1 July 2024, but for eighteen months courts and police largely carried the old habits into the new sections. Three developments in 2026 have started to close that gap, and all three help a person facing a first arrest.
One: for offences up to seven years, notice comes before arrest
Section 35 of the BNSS carries forward the arrest safeguards that existed under Section 41A of the CrPC, and in January 2026 the Supreme Court held that for offences punishable with imprisonment up to seven years, issuing a notice under Section 35(3) is mandatory and arrest is an exception reserved for cases where it is demonstrably necessary. In practice that means a great many arrests that used to be routine now require the officer to record why a notice would not do.
Two: the standard bail conditions do not apply below seven years
Section 480(3) of the BNSS sets out conditions a court shall impose when granting bail — attendance, not tampering with evidence, and so on — but it is worded to apply to offences punishable with seven years or more. In April 2026 the Supreme Court held that those mandatory conditions do not apply to non-bailable offences punishable up to seven years. Magistrates had been importing them anyway, out of habit from the old Section 437(3). If conditions are imposed in that class of case, they now have to be justified on the facts rather than recited.
Three: whether grounds of arrest must be in writing
Section 47 of the BNSS requires that a person arrested be informed of the grounds. Whether that must be in writing, and when, is currently unsettled: on 9 July 2026 the Supreme Court acknowledged that its own decisions on the point conflict and indicated the question may need a larger bench. Until it is resolved, ask for the grounds in writing and record what you were given and when. If the answer later matters, contemporaneous notes are worth more than recollection.
The sections to quote correctly
- Anticipatory bail — Section 482 BNSS, not Section 438 CrPC.
- Regular bail — Section 483 BNSS.
- Remand and the custody timetable — Section 187 BNSS.
- Release of a first-time undertrial who has served part of the maximum sentence — Section 479 BNSS.
- Quashing — Section 528 BNSS.
Filing under a repealed section is not merely untidy. A bail application headed with a CrPC section for a 2026 offence invites a registry objection, and an objection costs days that the person inside does not have.
What the family should do in the first hours
- Find out the police station and the sections named in the FIR. Everything else follows from those two facts.
- Note whether a notice under Section 35(3) was served before any arrest.
- Ask for the grounds of arrest in writing, and keep whatever is provided.
- Do not let anyone sign a blank paper or a statement they have not read.
- Get the first production date. Bail is decided on what is placed before the court at that hearing, and what the family does before a lawyer is even engaged often shapes the rest of the case.
What this stands on
Every statement above rests on one of the provisions below. Section numbers are the 2023 codes — the BNS, BNSS and BSA replaced the IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act from 1 July 2024.
- Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, s. 35
- Arrest without warrant, and the notice to appear under s. 35(3)
- BNSS, 2023, s. 47
- Person arrested to be informed of the grounds of arrest
- BNSS, 2023, s. 480(3)
- Conditions on bail; worded for offences punishable with seven years or more
- BNSS, 2023, ss. 482, 483
- Anticipatory bail and regular bail — formerly ss. 438 and 439 CrPC
- BNSS, 2023, ss. 187, 479, 528
- Custody timetable, release of undertrials, and quashing
- Constitution of India, Articles 21 and 22(1)
- Personal liberty and the protection on arrest
Awaiting verification by Rajender Prajapat before publication. This is general information about the law, not advice on your matter.