New Criminal Laws in the AIBE – BNS, BNSS and BSA | What Changed and What to Carry

Updated 23 September 2026

The AIBE now tests two sets of criminal law at once. Papers up to AIBE XXI have asked questions under the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act, and under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. You will need both in the examination hall, and you will need to know which provision corresponds to which.

Why both sets still matter

Criminal law carries the heaviest combined weightage in the AIBE. Procedure accounts for ten marks and substantive criminal law for eight, with evidence adding another eight. Between them that is a quarter of the paper before you reach the Constitution.

The temptation is to carry only the new Sanhitas and treat the older codes as history. That is a mistake, for two reasons.

First, a large part of any AIBE paper is drawn from questions the Bar Council has asked before, reframed. A question originally set on section 34 of the Indian Penal Code does not disappear because the section number has moved; it comes back asking the same thing about common intention.

Second, the Bar Council has not abandoned the older references. The AIBE XXI paper held in June 2026 asked about section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 and about the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 in the same paper. It also asked candidates to identify an essential element of theft under section 378 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

The candidates who struggled in AIBE XXI were not the ones who had failed to learn the new codes. They were the ones who had to work out the correspondence in the hall, on the clock.

The provisions that move, and where they move to

The mapping below covers the correspondences that have already appeared in past papers or that sit on high-weightage topics. It is not the full concordance, which runs to several hundred entries.

Concept	Former provision	Current provision
Common intention	Section 34, IPC	Section 3(5), BNS
Culpable homicide and murder	Sections 299 and 300, IPC	Sections 100 and 101, BNS
Criminal intimidation	Sections 503 and 506, IPC	Section 351, BNS
Insult with intent to provoke	Section 504, IPC	Section 352, BNS
Defamation	Section 499, IPC	Section 356, BNS
Plea bargaining	Sections 265A to 265L, Chapter XXIA, CrPC	Sections 289 to 300, Chapter XXIII, BNSS

Two of these repay a second look.

Common intention. Section 3(5) of the BNS reproduces the substance of section 34. The requirement remains that common intention must be proved, though not by an overt act on the part of every accused. This point has been asked directly.

Defamation. Section 356 of the BNS keeps the classical definition from section 499 but adds a punishment option that did not exist before: community service. That is a genuinely new position, not a renumbering, and it is the kind of detail an examiner reaches for when setting a question that cannot be answered from an old paper.

What is actually new, not merely renumbered

Renumbering is a navigation problem. New law is a study problem. These are the provisions where the position itself has changed.

Zero FIR. The BNSS allows a first information report to be registered at any police station regardless of where the offence was committed, with the case then transferred to the station holding jurisdiction. There is no equivalent statutory footing under the old Code.

Community service as a punishment. The BNS introduces community service as a sentencing option for specified offences. Defamation is one.

Timelines for the investigating officer. The BNSS fixes periods that were previously left to practice. Section 173 sets the timeframe within which an informant must be told that an investigation is not warranted. Candidates should know the figure, because a question asking for it can be answered in seconds from the Bare Act and takes minutes if you do not know where to look.

Plea bargaining, narrowed and relocated. Sections 289 to 300, in Chapter XXIII of the BNSS, carry the scheme formerly in sections 265A to 265L, Chapter XXIA of the CrPC. Under section 289(1) it remains unavailable for socio-economic offences and for offences against a woman, and under section 289(1)(a) it remains confined to offences punishable with imprisonment up to seven years. One threshold has moved: the bar on plea bargaining for an offence committed against a child applied below the age of fourteen under the CrPC and applies below the age of eighteen under the BNSS.

Trial in absentia for proclaimed offenders. The BNSS permits trial to proceed against a proclaimed offender who has absconded and where there is no immediate prospect of arrest, after a prescribed period from the framing of charges.

Evidence: the Adhiniyam has its own traps

The BSA is where AIBE XXI concentrated its harder evidence questions, and the pattern is worth noting because it is likely to repeat.

The paper asked which bodies the Adhiniyam does not apply to. It asked what section 63(4) does and does not require in the certificate that authenticates electronic evidence. It asked which of four terms falls outside the framework of presumption under section 2.

Each of those is a question about the boundaries of a provision rather than its core. You cannot answer them by knowing roughly what the section is about. You answer them by reading the sub-section carefully, in the hall, having found it quickly.

That is the skill the paper is actually testing. Our detailed treatment of how to use Bare Acts for the AIBE sets out the search method in full.

What to carry into the hall

The Bar Council permits Bare Acts without notes or commentary. For criminal law that means carrying six volumes, not three.

• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Indian Penal Code, 1860
• Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
• Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872

Copies that carry marking or highlighting are frequently rejected at the centre. The instruction printed on the AIBE question paper permits Bare Acts without notes, and allows Bare Acts with the least short notes only at the discretion of the examiner or invigilator. Carry clean copies and do not rely on that discretion.

Taxmann’s Bare Acts for the AIBE are published without comments for this reason.

How to prepare the correspondence before the exam

Three things, in order.

Build the index, not the memory. You are not expected to recall that section 34 has become section 3(5). You are expected to find it. Tab both volumes at the chapter level and write the corresponding provision in the margin of the index page, not against every section.

Work past questions under both codes. A question set in AIBE XIV under the IPC is still a live question. Answer it under the BNS and note where the answer changes and where it does not. In most cases it does not, which is itself worth knowing, because it tells you which topics you can revise once rather than twice. Taxmann’s CRACKER for the AIBE carries the past papers from AIBE X to AIBE XXI with the legacy provision named alongside its current counterpart, which is the working form of this exercise.

Treat the genuinely new positions as separate study. Zero FIR, community service, the BNSS timelines, trial in absentia and the narrowed plea bargaining scheme cannot be answered from an old paper. They are small in number and high in probability.

Where a question turns on a judgment rather than a provision, the Bare Act will not help you at all. Taxmann.com | Research carries the reported decisions and the statutory history, and Taxmann AI will take the question as you would phrase it and return the provision, which is useful while you are building the index and useless in the hall, where no device is permitted.

A note on the rest of the syllabus

Criminal law is the visible transition. It is not the only one. Taxation is now written on the Income Tax Act, 2025, in force from 1 April 2026. Labour law is written on the four consolidated codes. A candidate who has updated the criminal codes and left the taxation paper on the 1961 Act has solved half the problem.

The AIBE syllabus and exam pattern guide sets out the full nineteen-subject weightage.

Frequently asked questions

Is the AIBE now based on the BNS or the IPC?

Both. Recent papers have asked questions under the new Sanhitas and under the older codes in the same paper. Carry both sets.

Can I carry both the IPC and the BNS into the examination hall?

Yes. The Bar Council permits Bare Acts without notes or commentary, and both the older codes and the Sanhitas qualify.

Which criminal law provisions have genuinely changed rather than being renumbered?

Zero FIR under the BNSS, community service as a punishment option under the BNS, the fixed investigation and reporting timelines under the BNSS, trial in absentia for proclaimed offenders, and the relocated plea bargaining scheme in sections 289 to 300 of the BNSS.

Where does common intention sit under the BNS?

Section 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, corresponding to section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Do I need to memorise the section correspondences?

No. You need to be able to find them. Tab both volumes at chapter level and note the corresponding provision on the index page rather than against each section.

Are marked or highlighted Bare Acts allowed?

They are frequently rejected. The printed instruction permits Bare Acts without notes, with the least short notes allowed only at the discretion of the examiner or invigilator. Carry clean copies.

Candidates should confirm current eligibility, dates and permitted material on the official Bar Council of India portal before acting on any of the above.