Sixty Acts. One search bar.

The supreme law of India, adopted on 26 November 1949 and effective 26 January 1950. Lays down fundamental rights, directive principles, and the framework of governance.

The principal substantive criminal law of India, replacing the Indian Penal Code, 1860 with effect from 1 July 2024. Defines offences and prescribes punishments.

The procedural criminal code, replacing the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 with effect from 1 July 2024.

The law of evidence in India, replacing the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 from 1 July 2024. Recognises electronic and digital records as primary evidence.

The substantive criminal law of India for offences committed before 1 July 2024. Largely replaced by BNS but continues to apply to legacy matters.

The procedural criminal law of India, applicable to legacy matters and continuing alongside BNSS for transitional cases.

The classical law of evidence in India, applicable to legacy proceedings.

Prohibits and penalises production, possession, sale, transport and consumption of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, with quantity-graded sentences, reverse burdens and stringent bail conditions.

Gender-neutral special law against sexual assault, harassment and pornography involving children under eighteen, with child-friendly procedure, special courts and a presumption of guilt.

Civil remedies — protection, residence, monetary, custody and compensation orders — for women facing physical, sexual, verbal, emotional or economic abuse in a domestic relationship; breach of a protection order is an offence.

Prohibits the giving, taking and demanding of dowry, and requires property received for the bride to be transferred to her.

Governs children in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection — Juvenile Justice Boards, Child Welfare Committees, adoption, and the preliminary assessment that may send 16-18-year-olds accused of heinous offences to trial as adults.

Creates specific offences of atrocities against members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, special courts, victims' rights, and a bar on anticipatory bail.

Regulates acquisition, possession, manufacture, sale and carrying of arms and ammunition through licensing, and penalises unlicensed possession and use.

The general law of contracts in India. Governs offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, free consent, and remedies for breach.

Relief for breach of contract by way of specific performance, injunctions, declarations, and rectification.

Governs cheques, promissory notes, and bills of exchange. Section 138 criminalises dishonour of cheques for insufficiency of funds.

Domestic and international arbitration framework, conciliation, and enforcement of awards. UNCITRAL Model Law inspired.

The procedural law for civil proceedings in India.

The principal company-law statute. Governs incorporation, governance, audits, mergers, and winding-up.

Consolidates law on insolvency resolution and liquidation of corporate persons, partnership firms and individuals.

Regulates the real estate sector, mandates project registration, protects allottees, and constitutes State Real Estate Regulatory Authorities and Appellate Tribunals. The rate of interest and several procedural details are left to State Rules, which vary between States.

Prescribes the periods within which suits, appeals and applications must be instituted, and the consequences of delay. The Schedule sets out the limitation period for each class of proceeding.

Governs contracts for the sale of movable goods — formation, conditions and warranties, passing of property and risk, delivery, and the remedies of unpaid sellers and disappointed buyers.

Defines partnership, the mutual rights and duties of partners, their relations with third parties, dissolution, and the consequences of non-registration.

Creates the LLP — a body corporate with perpetual succession whose partners have limited liability — and regulates incorporation, partners' relations, designated partners, and winding up.

Prescribes which documents must be registered, the time and place of registration, and the consequences of failing to register a compulsorily registrable document.

A fiscal statute levying stamp duty on instruments; unstamped or insufficiently stamped instruments are inadmissible in evidence until duty and penalty are paid. State amendments and state Stamp Acts (e.g. Maharashtra) frequently govern.

Creates commercial courts and commercial divisions for disputes of a specified value, mandates pre-institution mediation, and applies a modified CPC with strict timelines and summary judgment.

Lets banks and financial institutions enforce security interests in NPAs without court intervention, subject to a right of appeal to the Debts Recovery Tribunal.

Establishes Debts Recovery Tribunals and Appellate Tribunals for expeditious adjudication and recovery of debts due to banks and financial institutions of ₹20 lakh and above.

Classifies MSMEs and, in Chapter V, protects them against delayed payment with statutory compound interest and a Facilitation Council conciliation-then-arbitration route.

Provides free legal services to eligible persons and establishes Lok Adalats and Permanent Lok Adalats for settlement of disputes.

Defines easements — rights of way, light, air, water, support — their acquisition by grant or prescription, extinction, and the law of licences.

Prohibits anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominance, regulates combinations, and constitutes the Competition Commission of India (as amended by the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023).

Establishes SEBI to protect investors and regulate the securities market, with wide powers of investigation, direction and penalty, and an appeal to the Securities Appellate Tribunal.

Civil regulatory regime for foreign exchange, cross-border investment and external trade, administered by the RBI, replacing the criminal FERA regime.

Codifies Hindu marriage — conditions, registration, restitution, judicial separation, nullity, divorce on fault and consent grounds, maintenance and custody.

Provides a civil form of marriage for any two persons regardless of religion, its registration, and matrimonial reliefs; succession to the property of persons married under it is governed by the Indian Succession Act.

Governs intestate succession among Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs, including the coparcenary rights of daughters after the 2005 amendment (Vineeta Sharma, 2020).

Consolidates the law of intestate and testamentary succession for Christians, Parsis and others not governed by personal law, and the law of wills, probate, letters of administration and succession certificates for all communities.

Codifies adoption among Hindus and the obligation to maintain a wife, children, aged parents and dependants.

Secular procedural law for the appointment and declaration of guardians of a minor's person and property, guided by the welfare of the minor.

Establishes Family Courts to secure speedy settlement of disputes relating to marriage and family affairs, with a duty to attempt conciliation and relaxed rules of evidence and representation.

Summary Tribunal remedy for parents and senior citizens to claim maintenance from children and relatives, and to void transfers of property made on the condition of being maintained.

Machinery for investigation and settlement of industrial disputes; regulates strikes, lock-outs, lay-off, retrenchment and closure, and protects workmen during pendency of proceedings. (To be replaced by the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 when brought into force.)

Statutory gratuity for employees with five years' continuous service in establishments with ten or more persons, at fifteen days' wages per completed year, subject to a ceiling.

Compulsory provident fund, pension and deposit-linked insurance for employees in establishments with twenty or more persons; employer and employee each contribute twelve per cent of basic wages and dearness allowance.

Regulates the timely payment of wages without unauthorised deductions to employees drawing up to the notified wage ceiling, with a summary remedy before the Authority.

Empowers Governments to fix and revise minimum wages for scheduled employments and penalises payment below the minimum. (To be replaced by the Code on Wages, 2019 when brought into force.)

Codifies the Vishaka guidelines: defines sexual harassment, mandates an Internal Committee in every workplace with ten or more employees, and prescribes the complaint, conciliation and inquiry procedure.

No-fault compensation by employers for death, permanent or temporary disablement from accidents arising out of and in the course of employment, and for occupational diseases.

The principal direct-tax statute in India. Levies income-tax on persons, including individuals, HUFs, firms and companies.

Levies and collects central GST on intra-State supplies of goods and services.

Consolidates the law relating to food and establishes the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. It is a complete code: it lays down its own offences, its own adjudication and prosecution machinery, and by s.89 overrides other food-related laws. Adulteration prosecutions are routinely filed under both this Act and the IPC/BNS, which raises a maintainability question that must be taken at the threshold.

Criminalises money-laundering, empowers provisional attachment and confiscation of proceeds of crime, and imposes strict bail conditions; upheld largely in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary (2022).

Penalises bribery of and by public servants (recast by the 2018 amendment), criminal misconduct, and requires prior sanction for prosecution and prior approval for inquiry.

Regulates licensing, registration, insurance and traffic offences, and provides the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal framework for compensation (substantially amended in 2019).

Confers on citizens the right to access information held by public authorities, with statutory timelines, exemptions, and a two-tier appeal to Information Commissions.

Consolidates the law on generation, transmission, distribution, trading and use of electricity, sets up regulatory commissions and the Appellate Tribunal, and penalises theft and unauthorised use.

Constitutes the Bar Council of India and State Bar Councils, governs enrolment and the right to practise, and provides for disciplinary proceedings for professional misconduct.

Provides legal recognition for electronic transactions and digital signatures, and lays down cyber-offences.

India’s comprehensive data-protection law. Regulates processing of digital personal data and prescribes obligations for Data Fiduciaries.

Governs transfers of immovable property by sale, mortgage, lease, exchange, gift, and actionable claim.

Establishes consumer commissions and a Central Consumer Protection Authority. Recognises e-commerce, product liability, and unfair contracts.

Registration, protection and enforcement of trade marks, including well-known marks, infringement and passing off, with suits before District Courts (and Commercial Courts).

Grant and enforcement of patents for new, inventive, industrially applicable inventions, with India's distinctive exclusions (s. 3), compulsory licensing and revocation.

Protects original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematograph films and sound recordings; governs ownership, assignment, licensing, fair dealing, infringement and remedies.

Registration and protection of new or original designs — features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament applied to an article — for ten years extendable by five.