BNSS — Chapter IV: Powers Of Superior Officers Of Police And Aid To The Magistrates And The Police

Police officers superior in rank to an officer in charge of a police station may exercise the same powers, throughout the local area to which they are appointed, as may be exercised by such officer within the limits of his station.

Every person is bound to assist a Magistrate or police officer reasonably demanding his aid—

(a) in the taking or preventing the escape of any other person whom such Magistrate or police officer is authorised to arrest; or

(b) in the prevention or suppression of a breach of the peace; or

(c) in the prevention of any injury attempted to be committed to any public property.

When a warrant is directed to a person other than a police officer, any other person may aid in the execution of such warrant, if the person to whom the warrant is directed be near at hand and acting in the execution of the warrant.

(1) Every person, aware of the commission of, or of the intention of any other person to commit, any offence punishable under any of the following sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, namely:—

(i) sections 103 to 105 (both inclusive);

(ii) sections 111 to 113 (both inclusive);

(iii) sections 140 to 144 (both inclusive);

(iv) sections 147 to 154 (both inclusive) and section 158;

(v) sections 178 to 182 (both inclusive);

(vi) sections 189 and 191;

(vii) sections 274 to 280 (both inclusive);

(viii) section 307;

(ix) sections 309 to 312 (both inclusive);

(x) sub-section (5) of section 316;

(xi) sections 326 to 328 (both inclusive); and

(xii) sections 331 and 332, upon the person so aware, forthwith give information to the nearest Magistrate or police officer of such commission or intention.

(2) For the purposes of this section, the term “offence” includes any act committed at any place out of India which would constitute an offence if committed in India.

(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.