Under Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita(BNSS), what is the maximum period for which a person can be held in police custody in total, even if remanded periodically by a magistrate?
- (a)30 days
- (b)60 days
- (c)90 days
- (d)15 days (for initial remand, extendable)
Answer
Why
Correct — D. Section 187(2) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 caps police custody at fifteen days "in the whole, or in parts".
However many remand orders a Magistrate passes, police custody cannot add up to more than 15 days → option (d).
What BNSS changed is the timing: the 15 days can be used at any point in the first 40 or 60 days of detention.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)30 days — 30 days is not a BNSS custody limit. The Sanhita's numbers are 15 days of police custody and 60 or 90 days of total detention.
- (b)60 days — 60 days is the total detention limit for offences outside the ten-years-or-more tier, police and judicial custody together. When it expires, default bail under Section 187(3) applies.
- (c)90 days — 90 days is the total detention limit for offences punishable with death, life imprisonment or ten years or more. It counts police and judicial custody together, and police custody within it stays at 15 days.
Concept
When investigation cannot be finished within 24 hours of arrest, the accused is produced before a Magistrate, who can order further detention, called remand.
Remand is of two kinds: police custody, where the police hold and question the accused, and judicial custody, in jail under the court's control.
BNSS sets two ceilings: 15 days of police custody in all, and total detention of 60 or 90 days depending on the offence. After that, the accused must be released on bail if they furnish it.
The keyed option's words '(for initial remand, extendable)' are loosely put. The 15-day total is fixed; what BNSS stretches is the window in which it can be used.
Under the CrPC that window was the first 15 days of remand. BNSS spreads the same 15 days across the first 40 or 60 days of detention.
Key facts
- BNSS Section 187(2): custody ordered by a Magistrate may not exceed fifteen days in the whole, or in parts, within the initial 40 or 60 days.
- BNSS Section 187(3): total detention may not exceed 90 days (death, life imprisonment, or ten years or more) or 60 days (any other offence).
- When the 60 or 90 days run out, the accused must be released on bail if they furnish it: default bail.
- BNSS replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and came into force on 1 July 2024.
Study next
Common traps
- Picking 60 or 90 days: those are total detention limits, police and judicial custody together.
- Reading 'extendable' as a longer police-custody total: the 15 days can be split across the first 40 or 60 days, never exceeded.
Here a BNSS number is asked through the kind of custody it limits. BNSS's total-detention ceiling, 60 days before default bail, is asked at 15 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.17, and video-recorded confessions under BNSS at 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.18.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.