CrPC · Chapter II · Constitution of criminal courts and offices

CrPC section 25 in the BNSS

CrPC 25BNSS 19

CrPC section 25, “Assistant Public prosecutors”, is now BNSS section 19 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From CrPC 25 to BNSS 19

Now BNSS section 19. Where no Assistant Public Prosecutor is available, the District Magistrate may appoint another person after giving the State Government fourteen days’ notice. The bar on police officers being appointed is kept, reworded.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

Section 25 Assistant Public prosecutors

(1) The State Government shall appoint in every district one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors for conducting prosecutions in the Courts of Magistrates.

(1A) The Central Government may appoint one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors for the purpose of conducting any case or class of cases in the Courts of Magistrates.

(2) Save as otherwise provided in sub-section (3), no police officer shall be eligible to be appointed as an Assistant Public Prosecutor.

(3) Where no Assistant Public Prosecutor is available for the purposes of any particular case, the District Magistrate may appoint any other person to be the Assistant Public Prosecutor in charge of that case:

Provided that a police officer shall not be so appointed—

(a) if he has taken any part in the investigation into the offence with respect to which the accused is being prosecuted; or

(b) if he is below the rank of Inspector.

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 19 Assistant Public Prosecutors

(1) The State Government shall appoint in every district one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors for conducting prosecutions in the Courts of Magistrates.

(2) The Central Government may appoint one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors for the purpose of conducting any case or class of cases in the Courts of Magistrates.

(3) Without prejudice to provisions contained in sub-sections (1) and (2), where no Assistant Public Prosecutor is available for the purposes of any particular case, the District Magistrate may appoint any other person to be the Assistant Public Prosecutor in charge of that case after giving notice of fourteen days to the State Government:

Provided that no police officer shall be eligible to be appointed as an Assistant Public Prosecutor, if he—

(a) has taken any part in the investigation into the offence with respect to which the accused is being prosecuted; or

(b) is below the rank of Inspector.

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.