Metropolitan Areas: CrPC 8 Omitted in BNSS

What Happened to CrPC 8?

Section 8 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 empowered the State Government to notify cities or towns with a census population exceeding one million as metropolitan areas, deemed Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and Ahmedabad to be metropolitan areas, and regulated changes to metropolitan limits and status. In the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which replaced the Code from 1 July 2024, the official comparison tables list no section for Section 8 CrPC, and the Sanhita has no section in its place.

CrPC 8 Has No Corresponding BNSS Section

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 from 1 July 2024. The official comparison tables list no section of the Sanhita for Section 8 CrPC (Metropolitan areas).

What CrPC 8 Means in Practice

From 1 July 2024, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 has no section in place of Section 8 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Consequently, the Sanhita gives the State Government no power to declare any city or town with a population exceeding one million to be a metropolitan area, to alter metropolitan limits, or to notify the cessation of a metropolitan area.

FAQs: CrPC 8

Does the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 have an equivalent to Section 8 CrPC?▼

No. The official comparison tables between the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 list no section of the Sanhita for Section 8 CrPC. When the Sanhita replaced the Code from 1 July 2024, no section was enacted in place of Section 8 CrPC, which had provided for the declaration, boundary alteration, and cessation of metropolitan areas with a population exceeding one million.

Can a State Government declare a metropolitan area under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023?▼

Section 8 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 gave the State Government the power to declare by notification any area in the State comprising a city or town whose population exceeded one million to be a metropolitan area. The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 has no section in place of Section 8 CrPC, so the Sanhita confers no such power to declare or alter a metropolitan area from 1 July 2024.