If you are preparing criminal procedure for the AIBE, you have one question before all the others: do I study the CrPC or the BNSS?
We can answer that from the papers themselves. We counted and classified the criminal procedure questions in 19 real AIBE papers, from AIBE III in 2012 to AIBE XXI sat on 7 June 2026. The newest paper asks both codes, in the same hundred questions, and the Bar Council's current syllabus names both in the same row.
The weight of the subject has barely moved in fourteen years. What changed is the statute printed in the question.
The short version
- The Bar Council's published syllabus allocates 10 questions to this subject, under a heading that names both codes.
- Across the newest five papers, AIBE XVII to XXI, we counted 47. That is an average of 9.4, a little under the stated figure.
- Across all 19 papers we counted 180, an average of 9.5. Sixteen of the 19 papers land between 8 and 11.
- The changeover is real and it is partial. Of the ten criminal procedure questions in AIBE XXI, eight are in front of us: five name the CrPC alone, two name the BNSS alone, and one asks the date the BNSS replaced the CrPC.
- The old code is not off the syllabus. Anyone telling you to drop the CrPC is contradicted by the Bar Council's own heading and by the last paper it set.
- The BNSS questions we have seen ask what is new in it. The CrPC questions ask the provisions everyone knows by number.
What the Bar Council says this subject is worth
The current syllabus is a one page table titled "Syllabus for All India Bar Exam-XXI", published on the official exam site on 2 March 2026. Row 3 reads, exactly as printed:
| Topic / Subject | Questions |
|---|---|
| Cr. P. C. (Criminal Procedure Code) & (New) Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita | 10 |
Read that heading slowly, because a lot of advice about this exam gets it wrong. It is one row, worth 10 questions, and it names both codes with an ampersand between them. The Bar Council has not replaced the CrPC on its syllabus. It has added the Sanhita beside it.
The same row appeared in the AIBE XX syllabus of 27 September 2025, identical. So this is the settled position across two exams, and it is the position you should prepare against.
One warning if you go looking for this yourself. The Bar Council of India's own website carries an AIBE page whose address still ends "aibe-xvii". It prints an older syllabus, with the CrPC and no Sanhita at all, and it is wrong about several other things as well. It is a primary source and it is out of date. The syllabus PDF on the exam site, dated 2 March 2026, is the current one.
What 19 real papers actually show
The Bar Council publishes the papers and the official answer keys. It does not publish a subject breakdown. So we classified all 1,900 questions in our 19 papers ourselves, reading by hand every question a pattern could not settle. We counted CrPC and BNSS questions together, because the Bar Council's own row counts them together.
| Papers | Criminal procedure questions | Average per paper | Against the stated 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oldest seven, AIBE III to IX (2012 to 2016) | 65 | 9.3 | -0.7 |
| Middle seven, AIBE X to XVI (2017 to 2021) | 68 | 9.7 | -0.3 |
| Newest five, AIBE XVII to XXI (2023 to 2026) | 47 | 9.4 | -0.6 |
| All 19 papers | 180 | 9.5 | -0.5 |
And paper by paper:
| Paper | Criminal procedure questions |
|---|---|
| AIBE XXI, 2026 | 10 |
| AIBE XX, 2025 | 8 |
| AIBE XIX, 2024 | 9 |
| AIBE XVIII, 2023 | 9 |
| AIBE XVII, 2023 | 11 |
| AIBE XVI, 2021 | 13 |
| AIBE XV, 2021 | 10 |
| AIBE XIV, 2019 | 10 |
| AIBE XIII, 2018 | 7 |
| AIBE XII, 2018 | 10 |
| AIBE XI, 2017 | 9 |
| AIBE X, 2017 | 9 |
| AIBE IX, 2016 | 10 |
| AIBE VIII, 2015 | 9 |
| AIBE VII, 2014 | 9 |
| AIBE VI, 2014 | 11 |
| AIBE V, 2013 | 10 |
| AIBE IV, 2012 | 10 |
| AIBE III, 2012 | 6 |
This is one of the steadiest subjects in the whole set. Sixteen of the 19 papers sit between 8 and 11. The three that do not are AIBE III with 6, AIBE XIII with 7 and AIBE XVI with 13. Plan for 9 or 10 and you will rarely be far out.
Has this changed since the older papers
The number has not. The code has.
Look at the era table again: 9.3, then 9.7, then 9.4. Fourteen years, three new codes, a whole renamed statute, and the subject is worth the same it always was.
Our set straddles the changeover, which is the useful part. Papers up to AIBE XVIII, sat in 2023, ask the CrPC. The Sanhita starts appearing from AIBE XIX in 2024. And the newest paper we hold, AIBE XXI of 7 June 2026, does not choose between them.
Of the ten criminal procedure questions in AIBE XXI, eight are in front of us in detail. Five name the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and nothing else. Two name the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and nothing else. One names both, and asks when the second replaced the first.
So the honest answer to "CrPC or BNSS" is: on the evidence of the most recent paper, mostly the CrPC, and increasingly the BNSS. Dropping either one costs you marks.
What actually gets asked
These are real questions from AIBE XXI, quoted exactly as printed. We are quoting them to show you their shape, not answering them here.
Under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, which specific provision provides the legal definition for a 'Bailable Offence'?
Under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, what is now a mandatory requirement for the process of search and seizure conducted by the police?
On which specific date did the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, officially come into force, replacing the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973?
Those three are the whole subject in miniature, and they are three different jobs.
The CrPC questions ask you to name the provision. Here are the five CrPC stems we have from AIBE XXI, by what they cover:
- the summary remedy for maintenance of spouses, children and parents
- the definition of a bailable offence
- production of a person arrested without a warrant before a Magistrate within 24 hours
- default bail under Section 167
- an appeal against a one month sentence passed by a Magistrate of the Second Class
Every one of those is a provision a final year student has met. What the paper wants is the number, or what follows from it.
The BNSS questions ask what is new. Both of our BNSS stems are about change: a mandatory requirement introduced into search and seizure by Section 105, and a timeframe introduced for delivering judgment after arguments conclude. Not the general law of search, the new bit.
And one question is about the changeover itself. A commencement date, asked outright. There is no technique for that one. You either carry it in your head or you find it.
What to revise, and what to skip
Do not drop the CrPC. It is in the Bar Council's own syllabus heading, and five of the eight AIBE XXI questions we can see are about it alone. This is the single most common piece of bad advice about the current exam.
Revise the CrPC by provision number. The questions above are all "which provision does this". Bail, maintenance, arrest and production, default bail, appeals and the powers of different classes of Magistrate: those are the ones that keep coming back.
Revise the BNSS by what it introduced. Timeframes, mandatory steps, anything the Sanhita added that the old code did not have. On our sample that is exactly where the BNSS questions live.
Know the commencement date. It has already been asked once, in the most recent paper.
What to skip: building a full mapping table of old section numbers to new ones. It is a popular revision exercise and none of the eight AIBE XXI questions we examined asks for a conversion. Eight is a sample from one paper, so treat that as a hint rather than a rule, but it is a hint pointing away from a lot of work.
Also skip the idea that this subject is growing because the law changed. It is not. It has been worth about 9 or 10 questions in every era of our set and it still is. If something has to give in your timetable, this is not the subject to take the hours from. The Constitution, which the syllabus also rates at 10, actually delivered an average of 13.8 across the newest five papers.
Which Bare Act to carry
Both, if your bag and your desk will take them.
That is not a hedge, it follows from the numbers. A question that asks which provision of the CrPC defines a bailable offence is answered by a CrPC. A question about what Section 105 of the BNSS requires is answered by a BNSS. On AIBE XXI, carrying only the CrPC would have put the book behind five of the eight questions we can see, and carrying only the BNSS would have put it behind two.
If you can genuinely only take one into the hall, take the CrPC, on the evidence of the last paper. But say honestly what that is worth: it is one paper, sat on 7 June 2026, and AIBE XXII has not been set yet. The direction of travel is obvious, and the Bar Council has not told anyone where it stops.
Whichever you take, take a clean copy. The Bar Council's Examination Guidelines allow "only BARE ACTS (without notes and comments)", and possession of anything else in the hall is itself a stated risk. The full carry-in position, including the second Bar Council document that softens that rule and the questions no document answers at all, is in what you can carry into the AIBE.
What these numbers do not tell you
- The classification is ours. The Bar Council does not publish one. We rolled the CrPC and the BNSS into a single count because its own syllabus row does.
- Eight of ten. The five and two and one split above describes the eight AIBE XXI criminal procedure stems we examined in detail, not all ten. The other two are in the paper and are not in that tally.
- One set per edition. Each AIBE paper is printed in four sets, A to D. We hold one set for each edition, mostly Set A. We cannot show whether the other sets carry the same questions, so we do not claim it.
- No forecast. Nothing here predicts the CrPC and BNSS mix in AIBE XXII. We will count it when it exists.
Where these facts come from
The syllabus heading is quoted exactly from the Bar Council's Syllabus for All India Bar Exam-XXI, published on the official exam site on 2 March 2026, and it is identical to the AIBE XX syllabus of 27 September 2025. The carry-in wording is from the Examination Guidelines for AIBE XXI, published 20 February 2026. The observation that the Bar Council of India's own AIBE page is out of date is ours, from reading it on 23 September 2026.
The question counts are ours. They come from 19 real AIBE past papers held on munotes, 1,900 questions in total, classified by us and counted on 23 September 2026. The three quoted stems are reproduced exactly as printed, from AIBE XXI questions 15, 38 and 18. We have rounded nothing up.
What to do next
The next exam is AIBE XXII on 29 November 2026. Registration opened on 19 August 2026 and closes on 27 October 2026.
The useful thing to do with this subject is not more reading. It is to sit AIBE XXI with both codes on the desk and find out how long it actually takes you to answer a "which provision" question out of a book you have not used under pressure. Most people are slower than they expect, and finding that out in the hall is expensive.
All 19 AIBE previous year question papers are on munotes as timed practice: 100 questions, a three hour timer, and answers taken from the Bar Council's official keys. Lifetime access to all 19 is Rs 499, paid once.