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

CrPC section 322 in the BNSS

CrPC 322BNSS 361

CrPC section 322, “Procedure in cases which Magistrate cannot dispose of”, is now BNSS section 361 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From CrPC 322 to BNSS 361

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 322 Procedure in cases which Magistrate cannot dispose of

(1) If, in the course of any inquiry into an offence or a trial before a Magistrate in any district, the evidence appears to him to warrant a presumption—

(a) that he has no jurisdiction to try the case or commit it for trial, or

(b) that the case is one which should be tried or committed for trial by some other Magistrate in the district, or

(c) that the case should be tried by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, he shall stay the proceedings and submit the case, with a brief report explaining its nature, to the Chief Judicial Magistrate or to such other Magistrate, having jurisdiction, as the Chief Judicial Magistrate directs.

(2) The Magistrate to whom the case is submitted may, if so empowered, either try the case himself, or refer it to any Magistrate subordinate to him having jurisdiction, or commit the accused for trial.

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 361 Procedure in cases which Magistrate cannot dispose of

(1) If, in the course of any inquiry into an offence or a trial before a Magistrate in any district, the evidence appears to him to warrant a presumption--

(a) that he has no jurisdiction to try the case or commit it for trial; or

(b) that the case is one which should be tried or committed for trial by some other Magistrate in the district; or

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amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown.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The BNSS repealed the CrPC from 1 July 2024 (section 531(1)).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