CrPC · Chapter XII · Information to the police and their powers to investigate

CrPC section 156 in the BNSS

CrPC 156BNSS 175

CrPC section 156, “Police officer’s power to investigate cognizable case”, is now BNSS section 175 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From CrPC 156 to BNSS 175

Now BNSS section 175. The Superintendent of Police may require a Deputy Superintendent to investigate a case. A Magistrate ordering investigation must consider an application supported by an affidavit and may make inquiry, and a new sub-section (4) adds safeguards before ordering investigation of a complaint against a public servant arising from official duties.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

Section 156 Police officer’s power to investigate cognizable case

(1) Any officer in charge of a police station may, without the order of a Magistrate, investigate any cognizable case which a Court having jurisdiction over the local area within the limits of such station would have power to inquire into or try under the provisions of Chapter XIII.

(2) No proceeding of a police officer in any such case shall at any stage be called in question on the ground that the case was one which such officer was not empowered under this section to investigate.

(3) Any Magistrate empowered under section 190 may order such an investigation as above-mentioned.

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 175 Police officer’s power to investigate cognizable case

Provided that considering the nature and gravity of the offence, the Superintendent of Police may require the Deputy Superintendent of Police to investigate the case.

(3) Any Magistrate empowered under section 210 may, after considering the application supported by an affidavit made under sub-section (4) of section 173, and after making such inquiry as he thinks necessary and submission made in this regard by the police officer, order such an investigation as above-mentioned.

(4) Any Magistrate empowered under section 210, may, upon receiving a complaint against a public servant arising in course of the discharge of his official duties, order investigation, subject to—

(a) receiving a report containing facts and circumstances of the incident from the officer superior to him; and

(b) after consideration of the assertions made by the public servant as to the situation that led to the incident so alleged.

The texts are India Code’s. The amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown. The PDFs linked below carry the full history.

Old law or new?

Which one applies to a case

The BNSS repealed the CrPC from 1 July 2024 (section 531(1)). Any appeal, application, trial, inquiry or investigation pending immediately before that date is disposed of under the CrPC as it then stood, as if the BNSS had not come into force (section 531(2)(a)). Anything not pending on that date follows the BNSS.