CrPC · Chapter XXXVII · Miscellaneous

CrPC section 477 in the BNSS

CrPC 477BNSS 523

CrPC section 477, “Power of High Court to make rules”, is now BNSS section 523 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From CrPC 477 to BNSS 523

Now BNSS section 523, with the same power.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

Section 477 Power of High Court to make rules

(1) Every High Court may, with the previous approval of the State Government, make rules—

(a) as to the persons who may be permitted to act as petition-writers in the Criminal Courts subordinate to it;

(b) regulating the issue of licences to such persons, the conduct of business by them, and the scale of fees to be charged by them;

(c) providing a penalty for a contravention of any of the rules so made and determining the authority by which such contravention may be investigated and the penalties imposed;

(d) any other matter which is required to be, or may be, prescribed.

(2) All rules made under this section shall be published in the Official Gazette.

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 523 Power of High Court to make rules

(1) Every High Court may, with the previous approval of the State Government, make rules—

(a) as to the persons who may be permitted to act as petition-writers in the Criminal Courts subordinate to it;

(b) regulating the issue of licences to such persons, the conduct of business by them, and the scale of fees to be charged by them;

(c) providing a penalty for a contravention of any of the rules so made and determining the authority by which such contravention may be investigated and the penalties imposed;

(d) any other matter which is required to be, or may be, provided by rules made by the State Government.

(2) All rules made under this section shall be published in the Official Gazette.

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amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown.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The BNSS repealed the CrPC from 1 July 2024 (section 531(1)).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