Which of the following changes has the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita…

Concept: Criminal law has two distinct halves. Substantive law says what conduct is an offence and what punishment it attracts; procedural law says how an offence is reported, investigated, tried and decided. A statute changes "criminal procedure" only when it operates on the procedural half.

India’s 2023 criminal-law reform replaced the three core criminal-law statutes — one for each domain — and every new statute inherits only its own domain:

Application: The BNSS is the procedural statute, in force from 1 July 2024, and its governing idea is to make the process electronic and auditable. Section 2(1)(a) defines "audio-video electronic means", and the Sanhita then builds the procedure around it: Section 183 provides for a Magistrate to record a confession or a statement by audio-video electronic means; Section 105 requires a search of a place, or the taking of possession of any property, under that Chapter or under Section 185 to be recorded by audio-video electronic means; Section 176(1) lets a victim’s statement in the specified sexual offences be recorded the same way; Section 173 allows information about an offence to be given electronically; and Section 530 allows trials, inquiries and the recording of evidence to be conducted in electronic mode. Among the four values offered, only audio-video (video) recorded confessions match something the BNSS actually does.

Precision note: The facility is not brand new in itself — the proviso to Section 164(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 already permitted a confession to be recorded by audio-video electronic means in the presence of the accused person’s advocate. What the BNSS changes is the scale: Section 183 carries that facility forward, and audio-video recording moves from an optional extra to a routine feature of the process, mandatory in places such as the recording of a search under Section 105.

Cross-check the other values:

• "Replaced all IPC sections" — the offence definitions of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 passed to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Section 358 of which repeals the IPC); the BNSS succeeded the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, not the penal code.

• "Presumption of guilt" — the BNSS rests on the presumption of innocence: as a general rule the prosecution must prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, and the Sanhita introduces no general presumption that an accused person is guilty.

• "Scrapping of all bail rights" — bail is not abolished: Chapter XXXV (Sections 478–496) carries the bail provisions, and Section 187(3) keeps default bail where the investigation is not completed within the prescribed 60 or 90 days. Section 479 adds release of a first-time undertrial who has served one-third of the maximum sentence, except where the offence is punishable with death or imprisonment for life, or where more than one offence or case is pending against that person.

Result: Among the values offered, the change the BNSS brought to criminal procedure is video-recorded (audio-video recorded) confessions.