Download Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 PDF in English (English)

About the CrPC

The **Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC)** was India's procedural criminal code for over 50 years. Enacted as Act 2 of 1974 and brought into force on 1 April 1974, it replaced the 1898 Code of the same name and set out the machinery for investigation, prosecution and trial of offences under the IPC and other substantive laws. It was superseded by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) with effect from 1 July 2024. The act runs to roughly 484 sections, organised into 37 chapters (39 with the amendment inserts 7A and 21A), plus two Schedules that classify offences and provide standard forms, covering the constitution of criminal courts, powers of police officers and magistrates, arrest, bail, framing of charges, trial procedure, appeals and revision. Although the BNSS has replaced the CrPC prospectively, the CrPC continues to govern criminal proceedings that were already pending on 1 July 2024, and its case law remains persuasive under the corresponding BNSS provisions. This page indexes the full text of every CrPC section, retained for reference, research and pending proceedings. Use the search above to find a section by keyword (e.g. “bail”, “arrest”) or by section number. Use the BNSS converter to find the BNSS provision that corresponds to a given CrPC section.