CrPC · Chapter VII · Processes to compel the production of things

CrPC section 93 in the BNSS

CrPC 93BNSS 96

CrPC section 93, “When search-warrant may be issued”, is now BNSS section 96 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From CrPC 93 to BNSS 96

Now BNSS section 96, with the same grounds for a search-warrant; the reference to the telegraph authority is dropped.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

Section 93 When search-warrant may be issued

(1) (a) Where any Court has reason to believe that a person to whom a summons order under section 91 or a requisition under sub-section (1) of section 92 has been, or might be, addressed, will not or would not produce the document or thing as required by such summons or requisition, or

(b) where such document or thing is not known to the Court to be in the possession of any person, or

(c) where the Court considers that the purposes of any inquiry, trial or other proceeding under this Code will be served by a general search or inspection, it may issue a search-warrant; and the person to whom such warrant is directed, may search or inspect in accordance therewith and the provisions hereinafter contained.

(2) The Court may, if it thinks fit, specify in the warrant the particular place or part thereof to which only the search or inspection shall extend; and the person charged with the execution of such warrant shall then search or inspect only the place or part so specified.

(3) Nothing contained in this section shall authorise any Magistrate other than a District Magistrate or Chief Judicial Magistrate to grant a warrant to search for a document, parcel or other thing in the custody of the postal or telegraph authority.

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 96 When search-warrant may be issued

(1) Where—

(a) any Court has reason to believe that a person to whom a summons order under section 94 or a requisition under sub-section (1) of section 95 has been, or might be, addressed, will not or would not produce the document or thing as required by such summons or requisition; or

(b) such document or thing is not known to the Court to be in the possession of any person; or

(c) the Court considers that the purposes of any inquiry, trial or other proceeding under this Sanhita will be served by a general search or inspection, it may issue a search-warrant; and the person to whom such warrant is directed, may search or inspect in accordance therewith and the provisions hereinafter contained.

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.