CrPC · Chapter XIX · Trial of warrant-cases by Magistrates
CrPC section 249, “Absence of complainant”, is now BNSS section 272 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.
Now BNSS section 272. Before acquitting for the complainant’s absence, the Magistrate must give the complainant thirty days to appear.
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
When the proceedings have been instituted upon complaint, and on any day fixed for the hearing of the case, the complainant is absent, and the offence may be lawfully compounded or is not a cognizable offence, the Magistrate may, in his discretion, notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained, at any time before the charge has been framed, discharge the accused.
Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
When the proceedings have been instituted upon complaint, and on any day fixed for the hearing of the case, the complainant is absent, and the offence may be lawfully compounded or is not a cognizable offence, the Magistrate may after giving thirty days’ time to the complainant to be present, in his discretion, notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained, at any time before the charge has been framed, discharge the accused.
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amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown.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.
The BNSS repealed the CrPC from 1 July 2024 (section 531(1)).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.
