Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 · Chapter XVIII: The Charge

Section 240 BNSS: Recall of witnesses when charge altered

Corresponding CrPC: Section 217 CrPC

Bare Act text

Whenever a charge is altered or added to by the Court after the commencement of the trial, the prosecutor and the accused shall be allowed—

(a) to recall or re-summon, and examine with reference to such alteration or addition, any witness who may have been examined, unless the Court, for reasons to be recorded in writing, considers that the prosecutor or the accused, as the case may be, desires to recall or re-examine such witness for the purpose of vexation or delay or for defeating the ends of justice;

(b) also to call any further witness whom the Court may think to be material.

Text as enacted in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 46 of 2023), in force from 1 July 2024. Source: India Code, Government of India.

In simple words

Allows the prosecutor and accused, when a charge is altered or added to after the trial begins, to recall or re-summon and examine witnesses already examined on the alteration, unless the court finds vexation or delay. They may also call any further witness the court considers material.