CrPC · Chapter XXVII · The judgment

CrPC section 356 in the BNSS

CrPC 356BNSS 394

CrPC section 356, “Order for notifying address of previously convicted offender”, is now BNSS section 394 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From CrPC 356 to BNSS 394

Now BNSS section 394, and wider: a person convicted again of any offence punishable with three years or more may be ordered to notify their address after release (the CrPC applied this only to listed offences and chapters).

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

Section 356 Order for notifying address of previously convicted offender

(1) When any person, having been convicted by a Court in India of an offence punishable under section 215, section 489A, section 489B, section 489C or section 489D or section 506 (in so far as it relates to criminal intimidation punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both) of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860), or of any offence punishable under Chapter XII or Chapter XVI or Chapter XVII of that Code, with imprisonment for a term of three years, or upwards, is again convicted of any offence punishable under any of those sections or Chapters with imprisonment for a term of three years or upwards by any Court other than that of a Magistrate of the second class, such Court may, if it thinks fit, at the time of passing a sentence of imprisonment on such person, also order that his residence and any change of, or absence from, such residence after release be notified as hereinafter provided for a term not exceeding five years from the date of the expiration of such sentence.

(2) The provisions of sub-section (1) with reference to the offences named therein, apply also to criminal conspiracies to commit such offences and to the abatement of such offences and attempts to commit them.

(3) If such conviction is set aside on appeal or otherwise, such order shall become void.

(4) An order under this section may also be made by an Appellate Court or by the High Court or Court of Session when exercising its powers of revision.

(5) The State Government may, by notification, make rules to carry out the provisions of this section relating to the notification of residence or change of, or absence from, residence by released convicts.

(6) Such rules may provide for punishment for the breach thereof and any person charged with a breach of any such rule may be tried by a Magistrate of competent jurisdiction in the district in which the place last notified by him as his place of residence is situated.

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 394 Order for notifying address of previously convicted offender

(1) When any person, having been convicted by a Court in India of an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term of three years, or upwards, is again convicted of any offence punishable with imprisonment for a term of three years or upwards by any Court other than that of a Magistrate of the second class, such Court may, if it thinks fit, at the time of passing a sentence of imprisonment on such person, also order that his residence and any change of, or absence from, such residence after release be notified as hereinafter provided for a term not exceeding five years from the date of the expiration of such sentence.

(2) The provisions of sub-section (1) shall also apply to criminal conspiracies to commit such offences and to the abetment of such offences and attempts to commit them.

(3) If such conviction is set aside on appeal or otherwise, such order shall become void.

(4) An order under this section may also be made by an Appellate Court or by the High Court or Court of Session when exercising its powers of revision.

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.