CrPC · Chapter XXIV · General provisions as to inquiries and trials

CrPC section 311 in the BNSS

CrPC 311BNSS 348

CrPC section 311, “Power to summon material witness, or examine person present”, is now BNSS section 348 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From CrPC 311 to BNSS 348

The words are the same as in the CrPC, apart from “Sanhita” for the Act’s own name and the new numbers of the sections it refers to.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

Section 311 Power to summon material witness, or examine person present

Any Court may, at any stage of any inquiry, trial or other proceeding under this Code, summon any person as a witness, or examine any person in attendance, though not summoned as a witness, or recall and re-examine any person already examined; and the Court shall summon and examine or recall and re-examine any such person if his evidence appears to it to be essential to the just decision of the case.

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 348 Power to summon material witness, or examine person present

Any Court may, at any stage of any inquiry, trial or other proceeding under this Sanhita, summon any person as a witness, or examine any person in attendance, though not summoned as a witness, or re-call and re-examine any person already examined; and the Court shall summon and examine or re-call and re-examine any such person if his evidence appears to it to be essential to the just decision of the case.

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amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown.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The BNSS repealed the CrPC from 1 July 2024 (section 531(1)).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.