Zero FIR To Zero Access: Examining Whether Disabled Victims Can Meaningfully Navigate India's New Criminal Justice Framework Under BNSS 2023

Anshika Mishra, B.A.LL.B. (Hons.), Galgotias University ABSTRACT The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), operative from July 1, 2024, codifies Zero FIR and introduces disability-specific procedural protections under Section 173. On paper, these represent a meaningful departure from the silence of the old Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. In practice, however, the question of whether persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, or psychosocial disabilities can meaningfully...