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Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 478, BNSS: In what cases bail to be taken

Pundora · Published 3 October 2026

Section 478 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in the Act's own words, with the CrPC provision it replaces.

What it replaces

BNSS provisionCrPC provisionRelation
Section 478Section 436corresponds

From the Bureau of Police Research and Development's official comparison summary (source below). The whole table: CrPC to BNSS.

The section

478. In what cases bail to be taken.

(1) When any person other than a person accused of a nonbailable offence is arrested or detained without warrant by an officer in charge of a police station, or appears or is brought before a Court, and is prepared at any time while in the custody of such officer or at any stage of the proceeding before such Court to give bail, such person shall be released on bail: Provided that such officer or Court, if he or it thinks fit, may, and shall, if such person is indigent and is unable to furnish surety, instead of taking bail bond from such person, discharge him on his executing a bond for his appearance as hereinafter provided. Explanation.—Where a person is unable to give bail bond within a week of the date of his arrest, it shall be a sufficient ground for the officer or the Court to presume that he is an indigent person for the purposes of this proviso: Provided further that nothing in this section shall be deemed to affect the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 135 or section 492. (2) Notwithstanding anything in sub-section (1), where a person has failed to comply with the conditions of the bond or bail bond as regards the time and place of attendance, the Court may refuse to release him on bail, when on a subsequent occasion in the same case he appears before the Court or is brought in custody and any such refusal shall be without prejudice to the powers of the Court to call upon any person bound by such bond or bail bond to pay the penalty thereof under section 491.

The text is India Code's consolidated text as loaded into Pundora's statute corpus on 1 September 2026. A section quoted in a draft checked by Pundora is checked against this text.

Sources

  1. India Code: Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, section 478 (read 1 September 2026)
  2. Bureau of Police Research and Development: comparison summary, BNSS to CrPC (read 1 September 2026)

The Act's own words, from India Code. If the text here differs from the Gazette, the Gazette governs; write to contact@pundora.in and it will be corrected and dated.