Powers of Superior Police Officers, and Aid to the Magistrates
Chapter Eight
Syllabus topic 1.4, "Powers of Superior Officers of Police - Section 36" and "Aid to the Magistrates and the Police - Section 37 to 40"
Pages 43 to 48 of 699
In one line
A senior police officer has, in his own area, the same powers as a station house officer has in the station; and ordinary members of the public have four duties to help the criminal law work.
In exam wording: section 30 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 gives police officers superior in rank to an officer in charge of a police station the same powers throughout the local area to which they are appointed; and sections 31 to 34 impose duties on the public and on village officers to assist Magistrates and the police and to give information of certain offences.
Why the law has this at all
Two separate ideas sit in this short chapter.
The first is administrative. Most of the Sanhita's police powers are given to "the officer in charge of a police station". That is a real office, defined in section 2(1)(r). But a Superintendent of Police is senior to every station house officer in his district, and it would be absurd if he had to ask one of them to do what the Sanhita permits. Section 30 fixes that in a single sentence.
The second is older and more interesting. The criminal law does not work on police alone. A police force is thin on the ground, a riot happens faster than a force can be assembled, and most crime is known first to neighbours. So the Code lays duties on everybody: help when a Magistrate or police officer reasonably asks, help a person executing a warrant, and inform the authorities of certain grave offences.
Some words this chapter uses
Officer in charge of a police station is defined in section 2(1)(r). It includes, when the officer in charge is absent or unable to act, the officer present who is next in rank to him and above the rank of constable.
Local area here is the territory to which the senior officer is appointed, for example a district for a Superintendent of Police.
Breach of the peace is a disturbance of public order involving actual or threatened violence.
A proclaimed offender is a person a court has publicly proclaimed as absconding. The expression is defined for section 34 in that section's own sub-section (2)(ii).
Section 30: powers of superior officers of 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.
Three things follow.
The power is coextensive, not additional. A superior officer gets what the station house officer has, not more. Section 30 does not create a new power; it extends an existing one to a larger area and a higher rank.
Powers of Superior Police Officers, and Aid to the Magistrates
The area is his own. A Superintendent of Police appointed for a district may exercise those powers throughout the district, and not outside it.
It works both ways in practice. Because the senior officer has the same powers, he can take over an investigation, and because he has no greater powers, he cannot do by rank what the Sanhita does not permit a station house officer to do at all.
Section 31: when the public must assist
Every person is bound to assist a Magistrate or police officer reasonably demanding his aid:
(a) in the taking, or the preventing of the escape, of any other person whom the Magistrate or officer is authorised to arrest; (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.
The word "reasonably" is the limit. A demand that is not reasonable does not bind, and it is for the person making the demand to be able to justify it. Notice also that clause (c) is confined to public property; there is no general duty under this section to defend a neighbour's private property.
Section 32: aid to a person other than a police officer executing a warrant
Where a warrant is directed to a person who is not a police officer, any other person may aid in its execution, provided the person to whom the warrant is directed is near at hand and acting in the execution of the warrant.
This is permissive, not compulsory. It answers a practical question: a private person entrusted with a warrant is not on his own, and a bystander who helps him is acting lawfully. The two conditions stop the warrant being executed by a crowd in the absence of the person actually authorised.
Section 33: the public duty to inform
Sub-section (1). Every person who is aware of the commission of, or of the intention of any other person to commit, an offence punishable under any of a listed set of sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 must forthwith give information to the nearest Magistrate or police officer.
The listed sections are:
- sections 103 to 105;
- sections 111 to 113;
- sections 140 to 144;
- sections 147 to 154, and section 158;
- sections 178 to 182;
- sections 189 and 191;
- sections 274 to 280;
- section 307;
- sections 309 to 312;
- sub-section (5) of section 316;
- sections 326 to 328; and
- sections 331 and 332.
Sub-section (2). For this section "offence" includes any act committed at any place out of India which would constitute an offence if committed in India.
Powers of Superior Police Officers, and Aid to the Magistrates
Two points for an answer. First, the duty is general: it falls on every person, not on officials. Second, it is confined to the listed offences, which are the grave ones: offences against the State, counterfeiting, offences affecting public health and safety, and the most serious offences against the person and against property.
Section 34: the duty of village officers and residents
This section does the same work as section 33 but for a village, and it is wider, because it catches things that are not yet offences at all.
Who is bound. Every officer employed in connection with the affairs of a village, and every person residing in a village. Sub-section (2)(iii) defines the officer as a member of the village panchayat, and includes the headman and every officer or other person appointed to perform any function connected with the administration of the village.
To whom. The nearest Magistrate or the officer in charge of the nearest police station, whichever is nearer.
About what. Six categories, in clauses (a) to (f):
(a) the permanent or temporary residence in or near the village of any notorious receiver or vendor of stolen property; (b) the resort to, or passage through, the village of any person known or reasonably suspected to be a robber, escaped convict or proclaimed offender; (c) the commission of, or intention to commit, in or near the village any non-bailable offence or any offence punishable under sections 189 and 191 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita; (d) any sudden or unnatural death, or death in suspicious circumstances, or the discovery of a corpse or part of a corpse in circumstances raising a reasonable suspicion of such a death, or the disappearance of a person in circumstances raising a reasonable suspicion that a non-bailable offence has been committed in respect of him; (e) the commission of, or intention to commit, at a place out of India near the village, an act which would be an offence in India under a listed set of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections, namely 103, 105, 111, 112, 113, 178 to 181, 305, 307, 309 to 312, clauses (f) and (g) of section 326, 331 and 332; (f) any matter likely to affect the maintenance of order, the prevention of crime, or the safety of person or property, about which the District Magistrate, by general or special order made with the previous sanction of the State Government, has directed him to give information.
Sub-section (2)(i) adds that "village" includes village lands, and (2)(ii) extends "proclaimed offender" to a person proclaimed by a court or authority in a territory to which the Sanhita does not extend, in respect of an act which in India would be an offence punishable with ten years or more, life, or death.
Powers of Superior Police Officers, and Aid to the Magistrates
Clause (d) is the one worth remembering, because it is the beginning of the trail that ends in the inquest chapter. A village officer's report of an unnatural death is often what starts an inquiry under section 194 or section 196.
A worked example
A Superintendent of Police in Raigad district hears that a man wanted in a robbery is hiding in a village.
May he act himself, without going through the station house officer? Yes. Section 30 gives him, throughout Raigad, the same powers a station house officer has within his station. Robbery is cognizable, so the power to arrest without warrant is among them.
He asks two villagers standing nearby to help him stop the man escaping. They are bound to assist, under section 31(a), because the demand is a reasonable one and it relates to preventing the escape of a person the officer is authorised to arrest. A refusal is punishable under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and that is the sanction behind the section rather than anything in the Sanhita itself.
The village headman knew the man had been staying there for a fortnight and said nothing. He was bound to communicate that information under section 34(1)(b), because the man is reasonably suspected to be a robber, and the communication had to go to the nearest Magistrate or the officer in charge of the nearest police station, whichever was nearer.
A body is later found in the village well. Every resident who knows of it is bound by section 34(1)(d) to report it: it is the discovery of a corpse in circumstances raising a reasonable suspicion of a sudden, unnatural or suspicious death.
A warrant against a second man is directed to a private person, and a neighbour helps him execute it. That is lawful under section 32, because the person to whom the warrant is directed was near at hand and acting in its execution.
Distinctions
| Section 31 | Section 33 | Section 34 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| On whom | Every person | Every person | Village officers and village residents |
| Duty | To assist | To inform | To inform |
| Trigger | A reasonable demand by a Magistrate or police officer | Awareness of a listed offence, or of an intention to commit one | Six categories, including things that are not offences |
| To whom | The Magistrate or officer demanding aid | The nearest Magistrate or police officer | The nearest Magistrate or officer in charge of the nearest police station, whichever is nearer |
| Section 31, assistance | Section 32, aid on a warrant | |
|---|---|---|
| Compulsory | Yes, on a reasonable demand | No, it is permissive |
| Condition | The demand must be reasonable | The person to whom the warrant is directed must be near at hand and acting on it |
Powers of Superior Police Officers, and Aid to the Magistrates
What this does NOT mean
Section 30 does not give a senior officer wider powers than a station house officer. It gives him the same powers over a larger area.
Section 31 does not oblige a citizen to defend private property. Clause (c) is confined to injury attempted to public property.
Section 33 does not require everybody to report every offence. It is confined to the listed sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and those are the grave ones.
And section 34 is not confined to offences. Clause (a) is about a person's residence, clause (b) about his passage through the village, and clause (f) about anything the District Magistrate has directed with the State Government's previous sanction.
Quick revision
- Section 30: a police officer superior in rank to a station house officer has the same powers throughout the local area to which he is appointed.
- Section 31: every person must assist a Magistrate or police officer reasonably demanding aid in (a) arrest or preventing escape, (b) preventing or suppressing a breach of the peace, (c) preventing injury to public property.
- Section 32: where a warrant is directed to a non police officer, others may aid, if he is near at hand and acting on it.
- Section 33: every person aware of a listed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita offence, or of an intention to commit one, must forthwith inform the nearest Magistrate or police officer; "offence" includes an act done outside India that would be an offence in India.
- Section 34: village officers and residents must communicate six categories of information to the nearest Magistrate or station house officer, whichever is nearer; "village" includes village lands.
Test yourself
1. What power does section 30 give a Superintendent of Police? The same powers as an officer in charge of a police station has within his station, exercisable throughout the local area to which the Superintendent is appointed. It is coextensive, not greater.
2. Is a citizen bound to help a police officer protect a private shop from damage? Not under section 31. Clause (c) covers injury attempted to public property. He would be bound if the demand fell under clause (a) or (b), for example if a breach of the peace were being suppressed.
3. To whom must a village resident report the discovery of a corpse? To the nearest Magistrate or the officer in charge of the nearest police station, whichever is nearer, under section 34(1)(d).
4. Does the duty to inform under section 33 extend to acts committed abroad? Yes. Section 33(2) says "offence" includes any act committed at any place out of India which would constitute an offence if committed in India.
Powers of Superior Police Officers, and Aid to the Magistrates
5. May a bystander help a private person execute a warrant? Yes, under section 32, if the person to whom the warrant is directed is near at hand and acting in its execution. It is a permission, not a duty.
6. Who is an "officer employed in connection with the affairs of a village"? By section 34(2)(iii), a member of the village panchayat, and it includes the headman and every officer or other person appointed to perform any function connected with the administration of the village.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.