Published on : 30 Oct 2025, 1:57 pm 6 min read

In the shadowed corridors of Tihar or Arthur Road jails, a new rhythm echoes: police custody (PC) - judicial custody (JC) - PC again - JC once more. Rinse and repeat.

India’s new criminal procedural law, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), was introduced in the name of “decolonisation” and “ nyaya ” or justice. In terms of fair investigations and swift trials, however, it lacks any novel element of nyaya compared to its predecessor, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Section 187 and the custody trap

One of the examples of the injustice is Section 187(2) of BNSS , which allows “intermittent police custody” up to 15 days in total, spread over the first 40 or 60 days of detention, within the 60/90-day period for f

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