सं Samvidhan

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 34

Duty of officers employed in connection with affairs of a village to make certain

(1) Every officer employed in connection with the affairs of a village and every person residing in a village shall forthwith communicate to the nearest Magistrate or to the officer in charge of the nearest police station, whichever is nearer, any information which he may possess respecting—

(a) the permanent or temporary residence of any notorious receiver or vendor of stolen property in or near such village;

(b) the resort to any place within, or the passage through, such village of any person whom he knows, or reasonably suspects, to be a robber, escaped convict or proclaimed offender;

(c) the commission of, or intention to commit, in or near such village any non-bailable offence or any offence punishable under section 189 and section 191 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023;

(d) the occurrence in or near such village of any sudden or unnatural death or of any death under suspicious circumstances or the discovery in or near such village of any corpse or part of a corpse, in circumstances which lead to a reasonable suspicion that such a death has occurred or the disappearance from such village of any person in circumstances which lead to a reasonable suspicion that a non- bailable offence has been committed in respect of such person;

(e) the commission of, or intention to commit, at any place out of India nearsuch village any act which, if committed in India, would be an offence punishable under any of the following sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, namely, 103, 105, 111, 112, 113, 178 to 181 (both inclusive), 305, 307, 309 to 312 (both inclusive), clauses (f) and (g) of section 326, 331or 332;

(f) any matter likely to affect the maintenance of order or the prevention of crime or the safety of person or property respecting which the District Magistrate, by general or special order made with the previous sanction of the State Government, has directed him to communicate information.

(2) In this section,—

(i) “village” includes village lands;

(ii) the expression “proclaimed offender” includes any person proclaimed as an offender by any Court or authority in any territory in India to which this Sanhita does not extend, in respect of any act which if committed in the territories to which this Sanhita extends, would be an offence punishable under any of the offence punishable with imprisonment for ten years or more or with imprisonment for life or with death under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023;

(iii) the words “officer employed in connection with the affairs of the village” means a member of the panchayat of the village and includes the headman and every officer or other person appointed to perform any function connected with the administration of the village.

Why this exists

This provision continues a long-standing colonial-era policing tradition (originally Section 45 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898/1973) meant to extend the reach of law enforcement into rural areas where police presence was thin. By legally obligating villagers and local officials to report crimes, suspicious deaths, and dangerous individuals, the law aimed to create an early-warning and information network for maintaining rural law and order, especially before modern communication and policing infrastructure existed.

Common misconceptions
  • Myth: Only police officers are responsible for reporting crimes in villages.
    Fact: This section legally obligates ordinary residents and local village officials, not just police, to report specified information.
  • Myth: This duty applies to every crime committed anywhere.
    Fact: The duty is limited to specific categories listed in the section, such as serious offences, suspicious deaths, and named dangerous persons, not all crimes generally.