Explainer · Criminal Risk · New Codes

ClawScore Criminal-Risk Check Under the New Criminal Codes

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

From 1 July 2024, India's three new criminal codes replaced the old ones: the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) replaced the Indian Penal Code, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) replaced the Criminal Procedure Code, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA) replaced the Indian Evidence Act. For anyone running a criminal-risk check on a person or company, this changed the vocabulary of the search: offences are now numbered differently, FIRs and charges cite new sections, and a name can carry both an old IPC case and a new BNS case at the same time. A criminal-risk check that only knows the old section numbers will miss the new matters, and one that only knows the new ones will miss the backlog. This page explains what changed, why a criminal-risk search now has to span both regimes, how the section renumbering works in practice, and how to read a ClawScore criminal-risk result honestly. Last verified October 2026.

01What changed on 1 July 2024

The three codes replaced the colonial-era criminal statutes with new ones, renumbering offences and procedures:

The substance of many offences carried over, but the section numbers changed. For example, the offence of cheating moved from the familiar IPC section to a new BNS section, and the procedure for arrest and bail now cites BNSS provisions rather than the CrPC.

02Why both regimes still matter

The change did not erase the past. As a general rule, an offence committed and an FIR registered before 1 July 2024 continues to be dealt with under the old IPC and CrPC, while new matters are registered under the BNS and BNSS. That means two regimes run side by side for years.

For a criminal-risk check, the consequence is direct: a person or company can carry an old IPC case still winding through the courts and a new BNS case filed after the switch. A search that covers only one regime gives a false sense of safety.

03How the renumbering affects a search

The renumbering matters because so much legal search is built around section numbers. A check that keys on IPC sections will not recognise a BNS charge, and a report that lists only new sections will confuse anyone used to the old ones.

A good criminal-risk search handles this in two ways:

• Search by party, not by section. Finding every matter against a name across courts is robust to the renumbering, because it does not depend on knowing which code a case was filed under.
• Map old and new together. Presenting a matter with both its code context helps a reader who knows the IPC understand a BNS charge, and vice versa.

04What a criminal-risk check should cover

A criminal-risk check on a person or company should reach across the criminal justice footprint, under both regimes:

• Criminal cases in trial and magistrate courts, under IPC or BNS classifications.
• Serious and economic offences in special and sessions courts.
• Related matters such as cheque bounce cases, which often sit alongside criminal exposure.
• The people behind a company, since criminal matters attach to promoters and directors, not just the entity.

Because this reaches individuals, it must be run lawfully and used fairly, as a risk input rather than a verdict.

05Reading a ClawScore result honestly

A criminal-risk result is an input to a decision, not a judgement about a person. Three honesty rules always apply:

• "Nothing on record" is not a clean chit. It means no matter was found in the registries searched, on the date searched, under the names searched, under either the old or new codes. A different spelling or an uncovered forum can still hide a case.
• A pending case is an allegation. The presumption of innocence applies, so a finding is a matter to verify, not a conviction.
• A hit on a common name is not proof. Individuals share names, so every finding needs a match-confidence flag and a human check.

A ClawScore is a litigation and criminal-RISK input, not a credit score and not a verdict, and it is not legal advice.

06The transition caveat

The criminal-law transition is still unfolding. The codes are in force from 1 July 2024, but a large volume of pre-switch matters continues under the IPC and CrPC, early interpretation of the new provisions is still developing, and the mapping between old and new sections is being settled by practice and by the courts.

07Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

ClawScore (at clawscore.clawlaw.in) is Claw's litigation and criminal-risk intelligence service, and it is built to handle the two-regime reality. Because it searches by party name across 9,102 courts, benches and forums rather than relying on a fixed set of section numbers, it finds matters whether they were filed under the IPC and CrPC or the new BNS and BNSS, and returns them in one scored Excel workbook: a Summary with a ClawScore risk band (Clean, Low, Moderate or High), a Matters sheet, a Related parties sheet covering directors and group entities, and a Coverage sheet showing what was searched. Every finding carries a match confidence, which matters because individuals share common names. Results return in under 5 seconds, the underlying judgment archive spans 30 crore+ judgments with Supreme Court decisions from 1950 and High Court decisions from 1990, and Claw does not use your searched names or documents to train its AI models. ClawScore is a risk input, not a verdict and not a credit score, so a finding must be verified and used lawfully and fairly, and "nothing on record" means nothing was found in these registries on the date searched under the names searched. ClawScore starts from Rs 500 per search plus monitoring, and you can create a FREE Claw account to run a check.

To see the criminal footprint behind a name, run a case search across Indian courts by party name across every forum at once.

08Sources and further reading

• India Code (text of BNS, BNSS and BSA): indiacode.nic.in
• Ministry of Home Affairs (the new criminal laws): mha.gov.in
• eCourts (case status and orders): ecourts.gov.in
• National Judicial Data Grid: njdg.ecourts.gov.in
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This page is general information for an Indian audience, not legal advice. The new criminal codes are in force from 1 July 2024, but a large backlog continues under the old laws and interpretation is still developing; confirm the position for a specific matter with counsel.

09Frequently asked questions