CrPC · Chapter VI · Processes to compel appearance

CrPC section 63 in the BNSS

CrPC 63BNSS 65

CrPC section 63, “Service of summons on corporate bodies and societies”, is now BNSS section 65 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From CrPC 63 to BNSS 65

Now BNSS section 65. A summons to a company or corporation may be served on a Director, Manager, Secretary or other officer, and a new sub-section (2) provides for serving a firm or association through any partner.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

Section 63 Service of summons on corporate bodies and societies

Service of a summons on a corporation may be effected by serving it on the secretary, local manager or other principal officer of the corporation, or by letter sent by registered post, addressed to the chief officer of the corporation in India, in which case the service shall be deemed to have been effected when the letter would arrive in ordinary course of post.

Explanation.—In this section, “corporation” means an incorporated company or other body corporate and includes a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860).

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 65 Service of summons on corporate bodies, firms, and societies

(1) Service of a summons on a company or corporation may be effected by serving it on the Director, Manager, Secretary or other officer of the company or corporation, or by letter sent by registered post addressed to the Director, Manager, Secretary or other officer of the company or corporation in India, in which case the service shall be deemed to have been effected when the letter would arrive in ordinary course of post.

Explanation.—In this section, “company” means a body corporate and “corporation” means an incorporated company or other body corporate registered under the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013) or a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860).

(2) Service of a summons on a firm or other association of individuals may be effected by serving it on any partner of such firm or association, or by letter sent by registered post addressed to such partner, in which case the service shall be deemed to have been effected when the letter would arrive in ordinary course of post.

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.