There are 19 AIBE papers you can practise on, and 16 of them were sat before the new criminal laws came in. The Indian Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act were replaced on 1 July 2024 by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam. So is an AIBE paper from 2021 still worth three hours of your time?
Most advice on this says "practise the old papers but update the sections". That is right as far as it goes. We wanted to know how much actually needs updating, so we went through every question in all 19 papers and counted.
The short answer
- The switch touches 26 marks out of 100. The AIBE XXII syllabus gives 8 questions to the IPC and BNS, 10 to the CrPC and BNSS, and 8 to the Evidence Act and BSA. The other 74 questions are on subjects the 2024 switch did not touch.
- The exam has not dropped the old codes. AIBE XX named an old code in 10 questions and a new one in 12. AIBE XXI named an old code in 11 questions, a new one in 12, and both in 1.
- The AIBE XXII syllabus, dated 13 October 2026, still lists both: "I. P. C. (Indian Penal Code) & (New) Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita", and the same pattern for the other two.
- In the 16 older papers, 71 of the 393 criminal law questions have section numbers as the answer choices. Those are the questions an old paper can get wrong now. The other 322 test the rule itself.
- Old section numbers are still being asked. AIBE XXI, sat in June 2026, had three questions whose answer is a section of the Criminal Procedure Code.
So yes, old papers still work. You just have to sit them knowing which questions have moved.
How the last three papers named the codes
We read the question text of every paper sat since the switch and sorted each question by the code it names: only an old code, only a new one, or both.
| Paper | Date sat | Names an old code only | Names a new code only | Names both |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIBE XIX, 2024 | 22 December 2024 | 0 | 19 | 2 |
| AIBE XX, 2025 | 30 November 2025 | 10 | 12 | 0 |
| AIBE XXI, 2026 | 7 June 2026 | 11 | 12 | 1 |
AIBE XIX, the first paper after the switch, went all in on the new codes. Eleven of its questions had section numbers of the new codes as the four choices. This is the style:
AIBE XIX 2024, question 24: "Which section of BNSS repeals the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973?"
Then the exam swung back. AIBE XX and AIBE XXI split close to evenly, and AIBE XXI went on asking for old section numbers as if nothing had changed:
AIBE XXI 2026, question 62: "Which provision of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, stipulates that a police officer must produce a person arrested without a warrant before a Magistrate within a maximum period of 24 hours?"
The same paper also asked about section 105 of the BNSS, section 4 of the BNS and section 63(4) of the BSA. A candidate who learned only the new codes would have lost marks on AIBE XXI. So would one who learned only the old ones.
What in an old paper has actually gone stale
We took the 16 papers sat before July 2024, AIBE III of 2012 to AIBE XVIII of 2023, and found every question under the three criminal headings: 393 in all. Then we looked for the questions whose answer choices are section numbers, because those are the ones where the right answer is a number that has since moved.
There are 71. About half of them ask for a section of the Criminal Procedure Code. The rest are split between the Evidence Act and the IPC. That is about four questions per old paper.
The other 322 questions ask about the rule: what an offence requires, when a confession can be proved, what a magistrate may do. Most of those rules came across to the new codes in the same or very similar words, under new numbers. Theft is a good example. Section 378 of the IPC and section 303(1) of the BNS open with the same sentence, word for word.
Two kinds of change do catch people, though, and both are in the substance, not the numbering.
Punishments changed in places. Causing death by a rash or negligent act carried up to two years under section 304A of the IPC. Under section 106(1) of the BNS it carries up to five years, with a separate limit of two years for a registered medical practitioner during a medical procedure. An old question about the maximum sentence now has a different answer.
Some lists grew. Section 4 of the BNS lists the punishments an offender is liable to and adds one the IPC's section 53 never had: community service. An old question that asks you to count the IPC's punishments gives the wrong count for the Sanhita.
The sections the old papers ask about, old and new
These are sections that come up in the papers, with their new numbers. We checked every row by reading both sections in the official text, not from a ready-made list. The last column is a short form of the section's marginal heading.
| Old section | New section | What it is about |
|---|---|---|
| CrPC 41 | BNSS 35 | When police may arrest without warrant |
| CrPC 154 | BNSS 173 | Information in cognizable cases |
| CrPC 161 | BNSS 180 | Examination of witnesses by police |
| CrPC 164 | BNSS 183 | Recording of confessions and statements |
| CrPC 167 | BNSS 187 | Procedure when investigation cannot be completed in twenty-four hours |
| CrPC 300 | BNSS 337 | Person once convicted or acquitted not to be tried for same offence |
| CrPC 320 | BNSS 359 | Compounding of offences |
| CrPC 438 | BNSS 482 | Direction for grant of bail to person apprehending arrest |
| CrPC 482 | BNSS 528 | Saving of inherent powers of High Court |
| IPC 34 | BNS 3(5) | Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention |
| IPC 120A | BNS 61(1) | Criminal conspiracy |
| IPC 299 | BNS 100 | Culpable homicide |
| IPC 300 | BNS 101 | Murder |
| IPC 302 | BNS 103(1) | Punishment for murder |
| IPC 354 | BNS 74 | Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty |
| IPC 378 | BNS 303(1) | Theft |
| IPC 420 | BNS 318(4) | Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property |
| IPC 498A | BNS 85 | Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty |
| IPC 503 | BNS 351(1) | Criminal intimidation |
| Evidence Act 6 | BSA 4 | Facts forming part of the same transaction |
| Evidence Act 24 | BSA 22 | Confession caused by inducement, threat or promise |
| Evidence Act 25 | BSA 23(1) | Confession to police officer |
| Evidence Act 27 | BSA 23(2), proviso | How much of information received from accused may be proved |
| Evidence Act 32 | BSA 26 | Statements by a person who is dead or cannot be found |
| Evidence Act 65B | BSA 63 | Admissibility of electronic records |
| Evidence Act 115 | BSA 121 | Estoppel |
| Evidence Act 133 | BSA 138 | Accomplice |
Two rows in that table deserve a second look. In the old Code, section 482 was the High Court's inherent powers. In the BNSS, section 482 is anticipatory bail, and inherent powers moved to section 528. The number is the same and the meaning is different. If a question says "section 482", check which Act it names before you answer.
And the old confession sections, 25, 26 and 27 of the Evidence Act, are now one section of the BSA, section 23. The rule on discovery that students know as "section 27" is now the proviso to section 23(2).
How to use an old paper now
This is our advice for getting full value from the 16 older papers.
- Sit it as it was set. Three hours, one sitting, and answer each question under the code it names. The real exam still does that, as AIBE XXI shows.
- After marking, translate the criminal questions. For each one, find the matching section in your own BNS, BNSS or BSA. Write the old and new numbers side by side on a revision sheet.
- Check every number in the answer, not just the section. Punishments, time limits and lists can differ, as the two examples above show.
- Keep the sheet out of your Bare Acts. The AIBE XXI Examination Guidelines allow "only BARE ACTS (without notes and comments)" into the hall. Our article on what you can carry into the AIBE covers what the Bar Council's documents say and where they are silent.
- Sit the newest three papers first anyway. AIBE XIX, XX and XXI are set on the codes as they now stand, and their questions are longer and differently built. Our six week AIBE XXII plan sets out the order.
For the subject detail, our guides to BNS questions, BNSS questions and BSA questions go through each code on its own.
The other 74 marks
It is easy to let the criminal codes take over your thinking about old papers. They are 26 marks. Constitutional law alone is listed at 10 questions and has averaged nearly 14 in the newest five papers. C.P.C., contract, family law and the rest did not change in July 2024.
An old paper's questions on those subjects are as good as they ever were. The things that have moved in the older papers are elsewhere: they ask some jurisprudence and public international law, which the newest papers have dropped. Our article on how the AIBE has changed since 2012 covers that shift.
Where the numbers come from
The 19 papers are real AIBE papers, AIBE III of 2012 to AIBE XXI of 7 June 2026, one set of each, held on munotes with the Bar Council of India's official answer keys. The counts were run on 16 October 2026.
"Names a code" means the question text names the Act, by full name or by its usual short form, such as CrPC or BNSS. The answer choices were not counted for that table. "Section numbers as the choices" means at least three of the four options are section numbers. We read all 76 questions that matched and removed five where the numbers were years or counts, not sections, which left 71. A question with section numbers worded some other way could have slipped past, so treat 71 as a floor.
The criminal headings come from our own sorting of all 1,900 questions under the Bar Council's syllabus headings. Where a question named nothing, it was read and placed by hand.
Every row of the section table was checked against the text of both Acts, the repealed Code and the new Sanhita or Adhiniyam, side by side. The date of AIBE XIX is from the Bar Council's notification of 25 October 2024. The AIBE XXII syllabus is the Bar Council's "Syllabus for All India Bar Exam-XXII", dated 13 October 2026.
What to do next
Sit one old paper this week the way this article describes, and time how long the translation step takes you. If it is slow, that is the skill to build before 29 November, because the exam asks in both the old numbers and the new.
All 19 AIBE previous year question papers are on munotes in exam mode: 100 questions, a three hour timer, your score and rank, and the official answer to every question. Lifetime access is Rs 499, paid once.