BNSS Section 65: Service of a summons on a company or corporate body (2026)

Explainer · Criminal Procedure · BNSS

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

When a company, firm or society is a party to a criminal matter, service of the summons is governed by Section 65 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), in force since 1 July 2024. Section 65 replaced Section 63 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). A summons on a company or corporation may be served on a director, manager, secretary or other officer, or sent to that officer by registered post. A summons on a firm may be served on any partner. If you still look up "Section 63 CrPC", this is the provision you now need. Last verified October 2026.

01Why serving a company is different

A company or a firm is not a natural person, so a summons cannot simply be handed to it. The law has to name a human being who can receive it on behalf of the entity. That rule used to sit in Section 63 of the CrPC. Since 1 July 2024 the CrPC is replaced by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), and the same rule now lives in Section 65.

This matters because service on the wrong person can be challenged, and the proceeding can stall. A summons in a matter governed by the BNSS cites Section 65, while older matters that began under the CrPC keep the old number under the savings rule.

02What Section 65 provides

Section 65 sets out how a summons reaches an entity rather than an individual. It covers two groups.

• Companies and corporations: a summons may be served by giving it to a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the company or corporation, or by sending it by registered post addressed to such an officer in India. Where it is posted, service is treated as complete when the letter would reach the officer in the ordinary course of post.
• Firms and associations of individuals: a summons may be served by giving it to, or by posting it by registered post to, any partner of the firm or member of the association, with service again treated as complete in the ordinary course of post.

03Who can receive the summons

The point most often litigated is who may validly receive a summons for the entity. For a company or corporation, the section lists a director, manager, secretary or other officer. The clear mention of a director is a useful addition, because it removes doubt about whether a director can accept service.

There is a practical trap. Where a firm is the accused, serving a partner personally is not the same as serving the firm, unless the right person is named in the correct capacity. The Allahabad High Court has underlined that service must be directed to the entity through its proper officer, so check whether the entity is an accused or a witness before you choose the mode of service.

04Old to new: CrPC 63 to BNSS 65

Section 63 of the CrPC is now Section 65 of the BNSS. The core idea is the same: serve the entity through a responsible officer or partner. The BNSS makes the list of officers clearer by naming a director.

The form that the summons itself must take, in writing, signed and sealed, or in electronic form, is set out separately in Section 63 of the BNSS.

05Is it an offence? Classification

Section 65 does not create an offence, so there is no cognizable, bailable or triable label to apply to it. It is a procedural rule about how a document reaches a company or firm.

Those labels attach to the offence for which the entity or its officers are summoned, not to the service rule. You find them in the First Schedule to the BNSS for the offence in question.

06What changed from the old law

The substance is carried over from Section 63 of the CrPC, so older case law on service on corporate bodies still guides Section 65. The main improvements are drafting ones: the express mention of a director among the officers who may receive a summons, and clearer treatment of firms and associations.

Read Section 65 together with the form rule in Section 63 of the BNSS. Both must be satisfied for valid service on an entity.

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.

Whether a company or firm was validly served is often the first thing fought over in a corporate criminal matter, and that single point can keep a case running for years across several forums. Claw holds more than 30 crore judgments, from the Supreme Court since 1950 and the High Courts since 1990, so you can see how benches have treated service on a director, a partner or a registered office, with answers in under five seconds. When the entity is your client or your opponent, track the matter by the company name and watch its orders and hearings update across 9,102 courts, benches and forums.

Claw does not use customer case documents to train its AI models, so a company's filings stay confidential. Start a free Claw account to search a corporate matter by party or advocate name, or step back to the full picture in case search across Indian courts.

08Sources and further reading

• India Code (official text of the BNSS, 2023): indiacode.nic.in
• Section 65, BNSS (bare text): advocatekhoj.com
• Section 63, CrPC (old provision): devgan.in
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This explainer is general information, not legal advice. The law changes through amendments and judgments, so check the current text and take advice from counsel before you act.

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