Criminal Practice
24 articles tagged with "Criminal Practice".
The Supreme Court’s Article 22 Revival: Why the Mandate for Written Grounds of Arrest Changes the Game for Criminal Defense
The End of "Rubber-Stamp" Remands For decades, criminal defense practitioners across India have fought a losing battle at the first remand hearing. The police produce the accused, mumble a vague justification for the arrest, and the Magistrate mechan...
The Death of Ex-Parte Cognizance: Why the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Section 223(1) BNSS Rewrites Magisterial Practice
The Paradigm Shift in Pre-Summoning Locus For decades, a cardinal rule of criminal practice in India was drummed into every young litigator: an accused has no locus standi prior to the issuance of process . Under the old Code of Criminal Procedure (C...
The Death of the 'Ghost Accused': Supreme Court Mandates Pre-Cognizance Hearings Under BNSS and Narrows Section 69 BNS
The BNSS Era is Finally Biting: What the Latest 2026 Judgments Mean for Your Criminal Practice For the first few years following the enactment of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) , trial courts and h...
Beyond Paper Tigers: Supreme Court Gives Teeth to Arrest Safeguards and Opens Direct Access to Human Rights Courts
The Dichotomy of the 2026 Supreme Court: Procedural Teeth and Abstract Expansions If there is a defining theme for the Supreme Court’s constitutional jurisprudence in the latter half of 2026, it is the stark contrast between its sprawling, abstract e...
The Ghost of Arnesh Kumar Lives On: Supreme Court Tames BNSS Arrest Powers with "Fresh Material" Mandate
The Blueprint of the New Criminal Codes is Being Redrawn by the Courts When the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the defense bar held its collective breath. The statutory text seemed to grant u...
The Article 21 Shield: How the Supreme Court’s Interpretation of Section 223 BNSS is Rewriting Pre-Cognizance Strategy
The Paradigm Shift in Private Complaints For decades under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC), the pre-cognizance stage of a private complaint was a one-sided affair. When a complainant approached the Magistrate under Section 200 CrPC, the a...
The Supreme Court’s 2026 Paradox: Expanding Article 21 While Diluting the SC/ST Act Through Spatial Gymnastics
The Jurisprudential Split Personality of 2026 If you want to understand the current trajectory of the Indian Supreme Court, look no further than its 2026 docket. We are witnessing a Court suffering from a jurisprudential split personality. On one han...
The BNSS Bites Back: SC Closes Default Bail Loopholes While High Courts Target False FIRs
We are now deep into 2026, and the transitional friction of moving from the CrPC and IPC to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) has given way to hard, binding jurisprudence. For practicing criminal lawyers,...
Defanging Magisterial Overreach: Supreme Court Curbs Arbitrary Bail Conditions Under Section 480(3) BNSS
The BNSS Jurisprudence is Finally Maturing As we navigate the middle of 2026, the dust has finally begun to settle on the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). For the trial lawyer, the initial panic of mapp...
Taming the BNSS: How the Supreme Court is Weaponizing Sections 528 and 225 to Protect the Accused
When the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the criminal defense bar braced for a prosecution-heavy regime. But as we parse through the jurisprudence of the first half of 2026, a distinct and rea...
The BNSS Pushback: How Constitutional Courts Are Reining in Police Powers Under the New Criminal Code
When the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), a collective shudder went through the Indian defense bar. The fears were palpable: expanded police custody durations, ambiguities in arrest protocols, ...
The Death of the 15-Day Rule: How the Supreme Court’s Reading of BNSS Sections 187(2) and 38 Tilts the Scales Toward Police
The End of the Anupam J. Kulkarni Era For decades, the golden rule of criminal defense practice at the remand stage was simple: survive the first 15 days. Under Section 167 of the old Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), read with the Supreme Court’s l...
The Supreme Court Draws the Line: Why Section 35 BNSS Finally Gives 'Arnesh Kumar' Statutory Teeth
The End of "Formality" Notices: Supreme Court Tightens Arrest Safeguards Under BNSS When the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in July 2024, the defense bar held its collective breath. Would the ...
The Judiciary Draws a Line in the Sand: Why the Supreme Court’s Latest BNSS Rulings are a Lifeline for the Defense Bar
When the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the defense bar held its collective breath. With expanded police custody provisions and new attachment powers, many feared the new code would become a ...
The BNSS Honeymoon is Over: Supreme Court Tightens the Noose on Arrests and "Further Investigation"
The 2026 Shift: From Statutory Text to Judicial Precedent As the initial chaos surrounding the transition from the CrPC to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) settles, 2026 is proving to be the year where the appellate courts are giving the...
The BNSS Arrest Regime Solidifies: SC Mandates "Fresh Materials" for Arrest Post-Notice, Tightens Remand Rules
The End of the "Cooperate and Arrest" Trap? For the Indian defense bar, 2026 is proving to be the year where the dust finally settles on the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) . While many feared the new code would merely be old wine in ...
The Right to Walk: How the Supreme Court’s Latest Article 21 Expansion Arms Lawyers Against Civic Apathy
The Pavement is Now Constitutional Ground For decades, Indian lawyers dealing with civic negligence—open potholes, encroached footpaths, and dangerous pedestrian infrastructure—have been forced into the grueling labyrinth of civil suits. We filed for...
Arrest as the "Exception": Decoding the Supreme Court's Hardline Stance on Section 35 BNSS
The Ghost of Arnesh Kumar Gets Statutory Teeth For decades, the Indian criminal justice system has functioned on a grim, unwritten premise: the police arrest first and investigate later. Even after the landmark Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar judgment...
The Pedestrian's Constitution: SC Elevates the 'Right to Walk' to Part III, While Tightening the Leash on Police Powers
The Micro-Movement Revolution: Article 19(1)(d) Hits the Streets In a jurisprudence largely preoccupied with macro-level liberties, the Supreme Court’s landmark mid-2026 declaration that the right to walk on safe and well-demarcated footpaths is a fu...
Firing Blanks in the High Court: Why Screaming "Murder" Isn't Enough to Cancel Anticipatory Bail Under the BNSS
The Hook: The Epidemic of Frivolous Bail Cancellations If there is one thing that clogs the dockets of our High Courts more than anything else, it is the bruised ego of a complainant. We are now well into the era of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha San...
The Right to Remain (Digitally) Silent: Supreme Court Shields Mobile Phones Under Article 20(3)
The End of the "Password Fishing Expedition" Every criminal defense lawyer in India knows the drill. Your client is issued a notice to join an investigation. They show up, and the Investigating Officer (IO) immediately demands their mobile phone and ...
The Supreme Court Just Tamed the ED's Arrest Powers: Section 35(3) BNSS is the New 'Arnesh Kumar'
The Dawn of Liberty Under the BNSS When the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the defense bar's collective anxiety was palpable. Many feared the new code would usher in a draconian era of extend...
The End of Digital Extortion: Supreme Court Shields Mobile Phones Under Article 20(3)
The Remand Court Reality Every criminal defense lawyer practicing in India's remand courts knows the drill. The Investigating Officer (IO) files an application for police custody, or vehemently opposes a bail application, relying on a single, heavily...
The Smartphone is Not a State Witness: Supreme Court Resurrects Article 20(3) in NDPS Investigations
The End of "Cooperate or Else" For years, criminal defense lawyers in India have watched investigating agencies weaponize a dangerously vague phrase during remand and bail hearings: "The accused is not cooperating with the investigation." In the cont...
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