Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, one rule about police custody was drilled into every criminal practitioner: under Section 167, police custody could be granted only within the first fifteen days after the first remand, as the Supreme Court held in CBI v. Anupam J. Kulkarni (1992). Section 187 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 — in force since 1 July 2024 — reworded that scheme, and the change has real consequences for custody strategy and bail. This explainer sets out the framework in force, flagging where the law is settled and where it is still being worked out by the courts.
The old rule and the new text
Section 167 CrPC (as read in Kulkarni)
Police custody only within the first fifteen days following the first remand. Thereafter, only judicial custody, even if new facts surfaced in the same case.
Section 187(2) BNSS
Custody of up to fifteen days in total, which may be sought in whole or in parts, within the first forty days (offences punishable up to ten years) or sixty days (graver offences) of the sixty or ninety day detention period.
The fifteen-day ceiling on police custody survives. What moved is the window within which those days can be taken. Under the CrPC, an investigating officer who could not justify police remand in the first fortnight lost it for good. The BNSS text permits the fifteen days to be claimed in instalments spread across the early weeks of the investigation.
The remand timeline
What the change means for bail practice
Three practical consequences follow. First, the exposure to police remand no longer ends at day fifteen, so counsel opposing a belated police-custody application must engage with the application’s substance — why custody, why now, what interrogation remains — rather than relying on the old temporal bar alone. Second, the change interacts with bail timing: an accused enlarged on bail is beyond remand, so the realistic prospect of a later custody application is itself a factor pressing for early, well-prepared bail applications. Third, the default bail clock is unaffected; the sixty and ninety day arithmetic, and the discipline of applying before the chargesheet arrives, carry over intact from the Section 167 jurisprudence.
A point to watch: how the forty and sixty day windows operate in particular scenarios is still being shaped case by case in the High Courts. Where the point is outcome-determinative, the safe course is to argue both the BNSS text and the protective principles underlying the fifteen-day jurisprudence, and to keep the record precise on every remand date.
The checklist at a remand hearing
Verify the arrest time and the twenty-four-hour computation from actual detention.
Demand and record the written grounds of arrest; note any defect immediately.
Count the custody days already taken, police and judicial, with dates.
Oppose police custody on necessity: what specific investigative step requires custodial presence.
Diarise the sixty or ninety day default-bail date from the first remand, and prepare the application in advance.
The wider frame
Remand law is where personal liberty meets investigative need at its sharpest point, and every structural change to it redistributes leverage. The BNSS’s reworking of the custody window is among the most consequential of the 2023 codes’ procedural changes for the arrested person. Counsel who still reason from the Section 167 reflexes — and prosecutors who overread the new text — will both find the ground has shifted. The dates, the grounds of arrest, and the custody arithmetic now decide more than they ever did.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the maximum period of police custody?
The outer limit remains fifteen days in total in ordinary cases. What Section 187(2) BNSS changed is when those fifteen days may be taken: the provision contemplates that police custody may be authorised in whole or in parts, within the first forty days (for offences punishable up to ten years) or sixty days (for graver offences) of the initial sixty or ninety day detention period — rather than only within the first fifteen days as under the Kulkarni reading of Section 167 CrPC.
Does the change affect default bail?
The default bail timelines themselves carry over: ninety days where the offence is punishable with death, life imprisonment or imprisonment for ten years or more, and sixty days for other offences. On the expiry of the period without a chargesheet, the accused is entitled to be released on bail under Section 187(3) BNSS, the successor to the proviso to Section 167(2) CrPC.
Why does deferred police custody matter to the defence?
Under the old regime, surviving the first fifteen days meant police custody was ordinarily off the table. Under the BNSS text, an application for police remand can come weeks later — for instance, after new recoveries or co-accused arrests — so bail applications and remand oppositions must account for that exposure through the forty or sixty day window.
Is an arrested person entitled to a lawyer at the remand stage?
Yes. Production before the Magistrate within twenty-four hours of arrest is a constitutional guarantee under Article 22(2), and the arrested person is entitled to counsel and to be informed of the grounds of arrest under Article 22(1). The Supreme Court's recent grounds-of-arrest jurisprudence has made non-communication a ground vitiating arrest itself.