CrPC to BNSS: the Executive Magistrate's renumbering map

Police reports, older G.O.s, court files, standing orders, precedent registers and every senior in the kacheri still speak CrPC, and will for years — the old code governed for fifty years and its numbers are muscle memory across the system. This page converts. All mappings below are verified against the section-by-section comparative table; where a section changed in substance and not just number, the notes after the table say so.

How to use this table

Three habits make it safe. First, convert at the moment of drafting, not at the moment of reading. When a police calendar cites “107 CrPC”, read it, understand it — and then draft your own order citing s. 126 BNSS. An order that mechanically repeats the CrPC number from the police draft is the single most common conversion error in circulation. Second, never trust the number alone — read the BNSS text. A handful of sections (127, 163, 196 especially) changed wording along with number, and the wording change is the point. Third, check the date of the underlying event. Proceedings arising from events before 1 July 2024 may still travel under the CrPC by virtue of the BNSS’s transition provisions; anything arising after runs under the BNSS. When an old file resurfaces, the first question is which code governs it, and the safe course is to note the answer on the file before acting.

The map

Subject	CrPC 1973	BNSS 2023
Appointment of Executive Magistrates; DM, ADM, SDM; EM powers conferrable on Commissioner of Police	20	14
Special Executive Magistrates	21	15
Local jurisdiction of Executive Magistrates	22	16
Subordination of Executive Magistrates	23	17
Arrest by (or in presence of) a Magistrate	44	41
Search for persons wrongfully confined	97	100
Restoration of abducted females	98	101
Magistrate may direct search in his presence	103	108
Security for keeping peace on conviction (judicial side)	106	125
Security for keeping the peace in other cases (bind-over)	107	126
Security for good behaviour — persons disseminating certain matters	108	127
Security for good behaviour — suspected persons	109	128
Security for good behaviour — habitual offenders	110	129
Order to be made (show-cause notice)	111	130
Procedure — person present in court / not present	112, 113	131, 132
Copy of order with summons/warrant; dispensing with attendance	114, 115	133, 134
Inquiry as to truth of information (6-month limit)	116	135
Order to give security	117	136
Discharge of person informed against	118	137
Commencement of period; contents of bond; rejecting sureties	119–121	138–140
Imprisonment in default of security; release powers; unexpired bond	122–124	141–143
Dispersal of assembly by civil force	129	148
Use of armed forces to disperse assembly	130	149
Armed-force officers’ power to disperse	131	150
Protection against prosecution for dispersal acts	132	151
Conditional order for removal of public nuisance	133	152
Service/notification of order	134	153
Obey or show cause; penalty for failure	135, 136	154, 155
Procedure where public right denied	137	156
Show-cause procedure; local investigation/expert; written instructions	138–140	157–159
Order made absolute; consequences of disobedience	141	160
Injunction pending inquiry	142	161
Prohibiting repetition/continuance of nuisance	143	162
Urgent orders in cases of nuisance or apprehended danger	144	163
Prohibiting carrying arms in procession/mass drill	144A	OMITTED — no BNSS equivalent
Dispute over land/water likely to cause breach of peace	145	164
Attachment of subject of dispute; receiver	146	165
Dispute over right of user of land/water	147	166
Local inquiry (land disputes)	148	167
Police preventive arrest (cognizable offence about to be committed)	151	170
Inspection of weights and measures by police	153	OMITTED
Police inquest — enquire and report on suicide, etc.	174	194
Power to summon persons (inquest witnesses)	175	195
Inquiry by Magistrate into cause of death (magisterial inquest; exhumation; custodial death)	176	196
Appeal from orders requiring security / rejecting surety	373	414
Revision (calling for records)	397	438
Making over or withdrawal of cases by Executive Magistrates	411	451

What changed in each cluster

Constitution of the magistracy (20–23 → 14–17). The structure is intact: DM, ADM, SDM, subordination. Two real changes ride along. Metropolitan Magistrates are abolished — the BNSS has a uniform Judicial Magistrate structure — and s. 14 now frames the Commissioner-of-Police clause generally (“under any law for the time being in force”) instead of tying it to metropolitan areas. The practical effect in Telangana is unchanged: the Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda Commissioners keep their conferred magisterial powers.

Security proceedings (107–124 → 126–143). A clean block shift of nineteen: add 19 to the old number and you are almost always right (107→126, 111→130, 116→135, 117→136). The substance is carried over, including the six-month limit on the inquiry (now s. 135) and the bond maxima. The one wording change is s. 127: the CrPC’s “seditious matters” in the old 108 becomes “certain matters”, tracking the replacement of IPC 124A sedition by the BNS 152 framework. Old 106 — security on conviction, a judicial-side power — is now s. 125, which sits confusingly adjacent to your 126.

Assemblies and force (129–132 → 148–151). Another clean shift, add 19. Same ladder: command and civil force, armed forces on the requisition of the highest-ranking EM present, armed-forces officers acting alone only when no EM can be contacted, and the good-faith sanction shield.

Public nuisance (133–143 → 152–162). Add 19 again; the conditional-order machinery — service, show cause, the civil-right-denial stay, local investigation, absolute order, injunction — is carried over intact.

The prohibitory power (144 → 163). Substantively retained: same DM/SDM/specially-empowered authority, same two-month life with State-Government extension to six months, same ex-parte power and rescission hearing. The addition is express coverage of acts and communications by electronic means. The deletion next door is CrPC 144A — see the traps below.

Land and water disputes (145–148 → 164–167). Add 19: possession on the date of the preliminary order, the two-month dispossession fiction, attachment and receiver, rights of user, local inquiry — all carried over.

Inquests and death inquiries (174–176 → 194–196). Add 20 here, not 19. The substance moved with two tightened timelines — the police inquest report must reach the DM/SDM within 24 hours, and s. 196(6) requires the body to reach the civil surgeon within 24 hours of death unless reasons are recorded — and one drafting change with real consequences: CrPC 176(1A) expressly named the Judicial (or Metropolitan) Magistrate for mandatory custodial-death inquiries, while BNSS 196(2) says only “the Magistrate”. Commentary still reads custodial-death inquiries as a judicial-magistrate function, but the point is debated and unsettled; treat it with care and see the inquests page.

Appeals and revision (373 → 414; 397 → 438; 411 → 451). The security-order appeal to Sessions and the general revision jurisdiction survive under new numbers, as does making-over of EM cases.

The traps

1. The 144 trap — the worst one. “Section 144” in the BNSS is maintenance of wives, children and parents — the old CrPC 125, a Judicial Magistrate subject. The prohibitory-order power everyone means by “144” is BNSS 163. A bandobast order citing “s. 144 BNSS” is citing the wrong law entirely, and the error is spreading precisely because the phrase “144 imposed” survives in speech and headlines.
2. CrPC 144A is gone. The DM’s specific power to prohibit carrying arms in processions and mass drills has no BNSS equivalent. Reach that mischief through the general s. 163 power and the Arms Act.
3. CrPC 153 is gone. Police inspection of weights and measures is now purely a Legal Metrology matter; a police report invoking it should be returned.
4. The two arithmetic zones. Add 19 works for the big middle blocks (107→126 through 148→167) but not for inquests (add 20: 174→194, 176→196), the constitution sections (20→14), or the tail (373→414, 397→438, 411→451). Trust the table, not the arithmetic.
5. Adjacency confusion. BNSS 125 (security on conviction — judicial) sits next to 126 (your bind-over); BNSS 148 (dispersal) wears the number of old CrPC 148 (local inquiry in land disputes, now 167). A half-remembered number is more dangerous than a forgotten one.

Old habits to unlearn

• Saying and writing “144 order”. Say “163 order” until it sticks; the day you cite the number from habit in a signed order is the day the habit costs you.
• Quoting the police calendar’s CrPC section into your own order. Convert at drafting, every time.
• Citing IPC offence numbers alongside — the substantive law moved too (IPC → BNS), and disobedience of your prohibitory order is now BNS 223, not IPC 188.
• Assuming an old precedent order in the office file is a safe template. Anything drafted before July 2024 carries the wrong section numbers and possibly superseded wording; mine it for structure and recitals, not citations.
• Reaching for 144A language (“carrying of arms in processions is prohibited under…”) — there is no such section to cite any more; the prohibition now lives inside your s. 163 terms.

Field notes for a probationer

Keep this table on your phone, and keep one habit beside it: when a police calendar, a G.O. or an old precedent file cites a CrPC number, convert it and then read the BNSS text itself before drafting — 127, 163 and 196 changed words, not just numbers, and the words are what a revisional court reads. When you find a conversion error in a draft put up to you, correct it visibly; every corrected draft retrains the office.