Rights of an Arrested Person Under the BNSS (Sections 47 and 48): CrPC 50 Mapping (2026)

Explainer · Criminal Procedure · BNSS

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

A person is picked up by the police. In the first hour the two questions that matter most are simple: why am I being arrested, and can my family be told. The law does not leave these to the goodwill of the officer. It makes them rights. Under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC) from 1 July 2024, Section 47 says what the arrested person must be told, and Section 48 says who must be informed. This explainer sets out both, how they map to the old law, and what changed. Last verified October 2026.

01The problem in the first hour

An arrest is a sudden loss of liberty. The person taken into custody is often confused, and the family may not know where they are. If the police do not have to explain the reason, or do not have to tell anyone, the arrest can become a quiet, unchecked act. That is the harm these sections are built to prevent.

Two safeguards answer two different needs:

• The arrested person needs to know the reason, so they can arrange bail, find a lawyer, and defend themselves.
• Someone on the outside needs to know about the arrest, so the person does not simply disappear into custody.

Both rights also flow from Article 22(1) of the Constitution, which says no person who is arrested shall be denied the right to be informed of the grounds of arrest or to consult a legal practitioner of their choice.

02What the rights are

Sections 47 and 48 of the BNSS protect an arrested person in the first stage of custody. Section 47 is about information given to the arrested person. Section 48 is about information given to the outside world.

An arrest without reasons given, and without anyone told, is the kind of arrest the law is designed to stop.

These two sections carry forward Sections 50 and 50A of the old CrPC, with one addition in the BNSS about a district level record of arrests.

03Section 47: grounds of arrest and right to bail

Section 47 of the BNSS says that every police officer or other person who arrests a person without a warrant must at once tell that person the full particulars of the offence for which they are arrested, or the other grounds for the arrest.

There is a second limb for bailable offences. If the arrest is for a bailable offence, and it is made without a warrant, the officer must inform the person that they are entitled to be released on bail, and that they may arrange for sureties on their behalf. This is a practical safeguard, because many people do not know that a bailable offence carries a right to bail.

Courts have treated the communication of grounds as a real duty, not a formality. The grounds must be told in a way the person can understand, so that the right to defend and to seek bail is meaningful.

04Section 48: informing a nominated person

Section 48 of the BNSS places a duty on the person making the arrest to inform a relative, friend, or any other person named by the arrested person, about the arrest and the place where the arrested person is being held.

The point is to make sure someone on the outside knows, so that the family can move quickly to arrange bail or legal help. The officer must also record, in a book kept at the police station, who was informed of the arrest.

The duty under Section 48 is not optional. Where the police fail to inform the nominated person, courts have treated the arrest as procedurally defective, and this can weigh in favour of bail.

05Old law to new law: CrPC 50 and 50A

The rights are not new in substance. They were already in the old CrPC. The BNSS re-enacts them with new section numbers.

So an advocate who knows the old Sections 50 and 50A will recognise the content at once. The change is the number, and the added district level record of arrests. For a wider view of how the procedure code was renumbered, see the CrPC to BNSS section mapping and the key changes from CrPC to BNSS.

06What changed

The core rights read the same as before. The real shift is in record keeping and traceability.

• Same rights: the duty to tell the grounds, the duty to tell a bailable arrestee about bail, and the duty to inform a nominated person all carry over.
• District level record: the BNSS pushes the information up to a designated district officer who keeps and displays details of arrested persons, which makes an undisclosed arrest harder.

Read Section 47 together with how an arrest is physically made. See how an arrest is made under BNSS Section 43, the general power of arrest in BNSS Section 35, and, for what follows, remand and police custody under Section 187.

07Practical points

• Ask for the grounds in writing where you can. A written note of the grounds removes later disputes about what was told.
• Name a person to be informed. The arrested person can choose who is told under Section 48. Give a clear name and number.
• For a bailable offence, press the bail point early. The officer must tell the person about bail, so do not wait to raise it.
• Keep the custody timeline. If the person is to be produced before a magistrate, the arrest time and the information given both matter. For bail after that, see how default bail works under the BNSS.
• Note defects. A failure to tell the grounds, or to inform the nominated person, is worth recording, because it can support a bail plea.

08Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

Once an arrest becomes an FIR and then a case, the fight moves to research and tracking, and this is where Claw earns its place. Its search runs across a store of more than 30 crore judgments, with High Court rulings from 1990 and Supreme Court decisions from 1950, and returns an answer in under 5 seconds, so you can find how courts have read the duty to give the grounds of arrest or to inform a nominated person. Claw then follows the matter for you, listing the cases, orders and hearings across 9,102 courts, benches and forums by party name or advocate name as it moves from remand to trial. It gives no legal advice and does not stand in for your counsel, and it does not use the documents you upload to train its AI models.

Open a free Claw account to search this case law and track an arrest matter by party or advocate name. The starting point for research across courts is the case search across Indian courts hub.

09Sources and further reading

• India Code (official text of the BNSS, 2023): indiacode.nic.in
• BNSS bare text (State police reproduction): uppolice.gov.in
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This explainer is general information, not legal advice. The law changes through amendments and judgments, so check the current text and take advice from counsel before you act.

10Frequently asked questions