Laws may be divided into substantive laws and procedural laws. The laws by which rights, duties and liabilities are defined are called substantive laws. The purpose of the substantive laws is to deal with the principles creating or destroying rights, duties and liabilities. Indian Penal Code is substantive criminal law which defines several offences, and also lays down the punishment for such offences. 

The laws of procedure, on the other hand, prescribe the mode by which the application of the substantive law is regulated. The Criminal Procedure Code deals with the rules of investigation of crime, methods of conducting trials, provisions for appeal, etc. Prior to 1882, there was no uniform Code of Criminal Procedure for the whole of British India. For the first time in 1882, the Code of Criminal Procedure was enacted. This Act was replaced by the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898. The code of 1898 underwent radical change by Acts of 1923, 1955 and 1974.

Government of India has constituted a “Committee on Reforms of the Criminal System” on 24th November, 2000 under the Chairmanship of Dr. Justice V.S. Malimath to consider measures for revamping the Criminal Justice System and the Committee has forwarded its recommendations to the Government during 2003. Recently, the Code of Criminal Procedure was amended by Criminal Procedure Amendment Act, 2008 which has come into force with effect from 31.12.2009, except three Sections (5, 6 and 2-b) of the said act. 

This book provides a short cut to the students of the  3/5 year law degree course to enable them to get a broad understanding of the topics that would be covered under the revised syllabus with effect from the academic year 2009-2010. Though every effort has taken to incorporate the developments / amendments on the subject, it may happen that some developments might have taken place subsequent to release of the book for publication. Hence, the readers are therefore advised to study recent amendments / case laws.