SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 17 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

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The Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita (BNS), 2023, consolidates and amends provisions related to which branch of law?

(a)Civil Procedure Law
(b)Criminal Substantive Law
(c)Evidence Law
(d)Contract Law

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The BNS long title reads: An Act to consolidate and amend the provisions relating to offences and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Law that defines offences and their punishments is substantive criminal law, as opposed to procedure or evidence. Section 358 of the BNS repeals the Indian Penal Code, 1860, which it replaced from 1 July 2024. That is option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Civil Procedure Law — Civil procedure is governed by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The BNS deals with offences and their punishments, not with how civil suits are run.
(c)
Evidence Law — Evidence law went to a separate 2023 Act, the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, whose section 170 repeals the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
(d)
Contract Law — Contract law is civil law and still sits in the Indian Contract Act, 1872. None of the three 2023 criminal-law Acts replaces it.

Concept

The 2023 overhaul replaced three older codes, one for each part of criminal justice.

Substantive law, what counts as an offence and its punishment: the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, replacing the IPC, 1860.

Procedural law, how a case is investigated and tried: the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, replacing the CrPC, 1973.

Evidence law, what may be proved and how: the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, replacing the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

The Act's official name is Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita; the stem spells it Samhita. All three new criminal laws came into force on 1 July 2024.

Key facts

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 is Act No. 45 of 2023, assented to on 25 December 2023.
Section 358 of the BNS repeals the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Section 531 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 repeals the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
Section 170 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 repeals the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

Study next

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023: what changed in criminal procedureBharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 and electronic evidenceCriminal law and criminal procedure as Entries 1 and 2 of the Concurrent List

Common traps

Picking evidence law because the three Acts arrived together, when evidence went to the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam.
Confusing the BNS, which defines offences, with the BNSS, the procedure code.

The companion Acts appear at 12 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.17, on the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam and electronic evidence, and at 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.18, on what the BNSS changed in criminal procedure.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Current events — all 156 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.