CrPC Section 18 (Special Metropolitan Magistrates) was not carried into the BNSS
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 · applies to offences and proceedings before 1 July 2024
NCRB's official correspondence table lists CrPC 18 as deleted (page 20), and BPR&D's gives it no BNSS counterpart. There is no provision of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 that replaces it.
CrPC 18: Special Metropolitan Magistrates
Before 1 July 2024
(1) The High Court may, if requested by the Central or State Government so to do, confer upon any person who holds or has held any post under the Government, all or any of the powers conferred or conferrable by or under this Code on a Metropolitan Magistrate, in respect to particular cases or to particular classes of cases , in any metropolitan area within its local jurisdiction:
Provided that no such power shall be conferred on a person unless he possesses such qualification or experience in relation to legal affairs as the High Court may, by rules, specify.
(2) Such Magistrates shall be called Special Metropolitan Magistrates and shall be appointed for such term, not exceeding one year at a time, as the High Court may, by general or special order, direct. [(3) The High Court or the State Government, as the case may be, may empower any Special Metropolitan Magistrate to exercise, in any local area outside the metropolitan area, the powers of a Judicial Magistrate of the first class.]
Which one applies
Procedure follows the proceeding. Under section 531(2)(a) of the BNSS, an appeal, application, trial, inquiry or investigation already pending on 1 July 2024 continues under the CrPC; one begun on or after that date proceeds under the BNSS.
Read BNSS section 531 →Judgments decided under CrPC 18
They still govern offences committed before 1 July 2024. With no BNSS counterpart, they do not carry forward.
Sources
- Correspondence Table and Comparison Summary of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 to the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, Bureau of Police Research & Development, Ministry of Home Affairs.
- Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023: bare Act with Corresponding Section Table, National Crime Records Bureau (Sankalan), page 20.
- The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act 2 of 1974), as amended, India Code, Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice.
BPR&D is the Bureau of Police Research & Development (Ministry of Home Affairs); NCRB the National Crime Records Bureau. Their correspondence tables are training aids, not law. This page is general information, not legal advice on any case; the bare Acts as published by the Government of India are the authority.