Chargesheet (Challan) in Criminal Proceedings: Contents, Time Limits, and Legal Implications

A criminal case rarely turns on the FIR alone. It turns on what the police hand over to the court once the investigation ends: the chargesheet, popularly called a challan. This single document decides whether a trial begins, what an accused is actually charged with, and how soon someone in custody can walk free if the police drag their feet. Since the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the old Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) from July 2024, the rules around chargesheets have kept their substance but changed their section numbers. Here is what the chargesheet actually contains, when it must be filed, and what happens when the police and the court disagree.

What is a chargesheet and when is it filed
The clock police must beat: 60 and 90 days
Can the magistrate order the police to file a chargesheet?
What actually goes into a chargesheet
The narrative and physical evidence
Witness and victim statements
Forensic and medical proof
Sanction orders, where required
The right to a free copy
Supplementary chargesheet and further investigation

What is a chargesheet and when is it filed

A chargesheet is the final report a police officer submits to a Magistrate after completing the investigation into a cognizable offence. It is filed under Section 193 of the BNSS, the provision that replaced Section 173 of the CrPC. Filing it means the investigating officer believes there is enough evidence to put the accused on trial.

Investigation does not always end this way. If the police cannot find sufficient evidence, they file a closure report (also called a cancellation report), stating that no offence appears to have been made out. When the accused cannot be traced or identified at all, the police file an untraced report instead. Both outcomes go before the same Magistrate, who then decides what happens next.

The clock police must beat: 60 and 90 days

The law does not let an investigation drag on indefinitely while a person sits in custody. Depending on the severity of the offence, the police must file the chargesheet within 60 days (for offences punishable with imprisonment up to ten years) or 90 days (for offences punishable with death, life imprisonment, or a minimum of ten years). This period is counted from the date of remand, not from the date of arrest.

If the police miss this deadline, the accused becomes entitled to default bail, sometimes called statutory bail. This right flows from Article 21 of the Constitution and protects personal liberty against open-ended detention without a formal charge. Some states had tried to extend this window through local amendments, but courts have made clear that such extensions do not survive once the parent law is repealed, and the standard 90-day cap applies uniformly, as the Orissa High Court clarified in a 2025 ruling. Courts have also settled what happens at the edge of this deadline: once a chargesheet in proper form is filed within the 60 or 90-day window, the right to default bail is extinguished, even if some supplementary documents or additional copies are still pending, as the Supreme Court reaffirmed while interpreting the corresponding BNSS provisions.

Can the magistrate order the police to file a chargesheet?

No. This is one of the more counterintuitive parts of criminal procedure. If the police submit a closure report, the Magistrate cannot simply direct them to file a chargesheet instead, because forming an opinion on whether a case should go to trial is the investigating officer’s job, not the court’s. This principle traces back to the landmark ruling in Bhagwant Singh v. Commissioner of Police, and it was recently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court, which laid out the Magistrate’s actual options when faced with a closure report.

The Magistrate can do one of three things: accept the closure report and drop the case, disagree with the police’s opinion and take cognizance of the offence anyway based on the material already collected, or send the case back for further investigation. What the Magistrate cannot do is instruct the police to write “chargesheet” instead of “closure report” against their own professional judgment, as the Supreme Court held in a 2026 judgment. A dissatisfied informant is not without recourse either. They can file a protest petition objecting to the closure, which the Magistrate may treat as a fresh complaint if it discloses an offence.

What actually goes into a chargesheet

A chargesheet is not a one-page summary. It is a bundle of documents that together tell the court the full story of the investigation, backed by evidence.

The narrative and physical evidence

The chargesheet opens with the investigation history: a written account of the facts of the case, the alleged motive, the accused’s preparation, their conduct before and after the offence, and the modus operandi used. It carries a copy of the original FIR, the seizure memo listing every article recovered during investigation, and a site plan that maps out the scene of the crime.

Witness and victim statements

Two kinds of recorded statements find their way into a chargesheet, and law students often confuse them. The first are statements recorded by the police during investigation, now governed by Section 180 of the BNSS (earlier Section 161 of the CrPC). These are not signed by the witness and are not treated as substantive evidence; they mainly become useful later if a witness contradicts themselves in court. The second are statements recorded before a Magistrate under Section 183 of the BNSS (earlier Section 164 of the CrPC), which carry far greater evidentiary weight and are typically used for vulnerable witnesses, dying declarations, or confessions.

Forensic and medical proof

Where physical or biological evidence is involved, the chargesheet attaches the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report. In cases involving injury to a living victim, it includes the Medico-Legal Certificate (MLC); in cases involving death, it includes the Post-Mortem Report (PMR). These technical reports often become the deciding factor at trial, since they are harder to contest than eyewitness accounts.

Sanction orders, where required

Certain prosecutions, particularly those against public servants acting in an official capacity, cannot proceed without prior government sanction. When applicable, this sanction order is also annexed to the chargesheet, since its absence can derail cognizance of the offence even after a chargesheet is otherwise complete.

The right to a free copy

Once the chargesheet is filed, the accused is entitled to a free copy of it and the connected documents without delay. This right, earlier found in Section 207 of the CrPC, now sits in Section 230 of the BNSS, which additionally requires the documents to be supplied within fourteen days and, notably, extends the same free-copy right to victims where they are represented by an advocate, a change the Supreme Court has noted did not exist under the old law.

Supplementary chargesheet and further investigation

Filing the chargesheet closes the primary investigation, but it does not shut the door permanently. If fresh evidence surfaces later, whether a new witness, a delayed forensic report, or an additional accused, the police can carry out further investigation and file a supplementary chargesheet to place that material before the court. This is why a case can see multiple chargesheets over its life, even though the deadline for the first one is strict and non-negotiable, as judicial exam resources on the BNSS lay out clearly.

What do you think? The 60 and 90-day deadlines exist to protect personal liberty, but do they also pressure investigators to file chargesheets before evidence is fully ready? And now that CrPC provisions like Sections 161, 164, and 173 have been renumbered under the BNSS, does relearning section numbers change how practically prepared a law student feels to read a real chargesheet?

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References

PDF 📄

Table of Contents

What is a chargesheet and when is it filed 🔗

The clock police must beat: 60 and 90 days 🔗

Can the magistrate order the police to file a chargesheet? 🔗

What actually goes into a chargesheet 🔗

The narrative and physical evidence 🔗

Witness and victim statements 🔗

Forensic and medical proof 🔗

Sanction orders, where required 🔗

The right to a free copy 🔗

Supplementary chargesheet and further investigation 🔗