CrPC · Chapter VI · Processes to compel appearance

CrPC section 64 in the BNSS

CrPC 64BNSS 66

CrPC section 64, “Service when persons summoned cannot be found”, is now BNSS section 66 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From CrPC 64 to BNSS 66

Now BNSS section 66. Where the person cannot be found, the summons may be left with any adult member of the family (the CrPC said an adult “male” member).

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

Section 64 Service when persons summoned cannot be found

Where the person summoned cannot, by the exercise of due diligence, be found, the summons may be served by leaving one of the duplicates for him with some adult male member of his family residing with him, and the person with whom the summons is so left shall, if so required by the serving officer, sign a receipt therefor on the back of the other duplicate.

Explanation.—A servant is not a member of the family within the meaning of this section.

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 66 Service when persons summoned cannot be found

Where the person summoned cannot, by the exercise of due diligence, be found, the summons may be served by leaving one of the duplicates for him with some adult member of his family residing with him, and the person with whom the summons is so left shall, if so required by the serving officer, sign a receipt therefor on the back of the other duplicate.

Explanation.—A servant is not a member of the family within the meaning of this section.

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amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown.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The BNSS repealed the CrPC from 1 July 2024 (section 531(1)).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