There are moments when the ground shifts beneath a person’s feet without anyone announcing that it has happened.
On July 1, 2024, India’s criminal law underwent exactly this kind of quiet seismic shift. Three codes that had governed criminal law since the British colonial era were replaced simultaneously. The Indian Penal Code of 1860, the Criminal Procedure Code of 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872 ceased to operate.
In their place came the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam.
Every section number changed. Many provision structures changed. Some substantive protections changed. And virtually every existing legal resource available to women became outdated overnight.
Adv. Amarjit Singh, Legal Author and author of Legal and Constitutional Rights of Women in India, built an entire chapter of his book around this transition because he recognizes something that most people have not yet acknowledged: women seeking to understand their rights in 2025 are navigating a legal landscape that most existing guides do not accurately reflect.
What actually improved and what the gaps reveal:
Adv. Amarjit Singh is direct about both dimensions, because a guide that only celebrates improvements without acknowledging failures serves neither legal accuracy nor the women who depend on this information.
The new codes introduced some genuine improvements. The BNSS strengthened provisions around recording statements of sexual offence victims. New provisions address some forms of deception-based offences. Some sentencing frameworks were updated to reflect judicial evolution.
But significant gaps remain.
The marital rape exception, one of the most contested provisions in Indian criminal law, was not removed. The new BNS retains Section 63’s exception for sexual intercourse by a husband with his wife unless she is below eighteen years of age. This was debated extensively before the legislation was passed. It was not resolved.
The Quick Reference Chart that Adv. Amarjit Singh provides in the book maps every major provision from old to new, allowing any reader to locate the current legal provision regardless of which code they encountered in earlier resources or conversations.
Why the transition created particular vulnerability for women:
Legal awareness campaigns take years to build. Helplines distribute information based on section numbers. Advocates train referral networks using specific provisions. Community organizations teach women which sections to cite when reporting violations.
When section numbers change overnight, this accumulated awareness becomes unreliable without people necessarily knowing it has.
A woman who learned that she could seek protection under Section 498A of the IPC now needs to know that the equivalent provision is in Sections 85 and 86 of the BNS. A survivor who was told her statement procedures would follow specific CrPC provisions now encounters a different reference framework in the BNSS, even where the underlying protection remains similar.
The confusion this creates is not abstract. It affects whether a woman can articulate her rights clearly when speaking to a police officer. It affects whether an advocate newly consulted is working from current or outdated information. It affects whether the helpline a woman calls is providing guidance based on the current legal framework.
The honest assessment that sets this book apart:
Most legal guides present improvements and stop there. Adv. Amarjit Singh documents what improved and what did not, and specifically addresses where the new framework leaves gaps that women, advocates, and civil society need to understand and press for change on.
This honesty is not pessimism. It is the information that anyone navigating these systems actually needs. A woman who knows only the law as written and not the law as experienced is only partially equipped. Understanding where the system works and where it fails is what makes legal knowledge actionable rather than theoretical.
Legal and Constitutional Rights of Women in India by Adv. Amarjit Singh is available on Amazon, Flipkart, Kindle, and Google Books. Buy now and work from the current legal framework rather than one that became outdated on July 1, 2024.
Grab your copy: https://sl1nk.com/legal-constitutional-rights
