Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
Section 55A Health and safety of arrested person
It shall be the duty of the person having the custody of an accused to take reasonable care of the health and safety of the accused.
CrPC · Chapter V · Arrest of persons
CrPC section 55A in the BNSS
CrPC 55ABNSS 56
CrPC section 55A, “Health and safety of arrested person”, is now BNSS section 56 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.
What changed
From CrPC 55A to BNSS 56
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
Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
Section 56 Health and safety of arrested person
It shall be the duty of the person having the custody of an accused to take reasonable care of the health and safety of the accused.
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amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown.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The BNSS repealed the CrPC from 1 July 2024 (section 531(1)).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.
Sources
- The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act 2 of 1974), India Code (archived copy)
- The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (Act 46 of 2023), India Code (archived copy)
- Correspondence Table and Comparison Summary of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC), Bureau of Police Research and Development (Ministry of Home Affairs): where each section went
