Section 152 BNSS: The Conditional Order for Removal of a Nuisance

In one line

A Magistrate can order a nuisance removed on a police report, before any trial, and it is still the fastest environmental remedy in India.

In exam wording: section 152 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023, replacing section 133 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 from 1 July 2024, empowers a District Magistrate, a Sub-divisional Magistrate or any other Executive Magistrate specially empowered, on the report of a police officer or other information and on taking such evidence as he thinks fit, to make a conditional order requiring the removal of an unlawful obstruction or nuisance, or the prohibition or regulation of a trade or occupation injurious to the health or physical comfort of the community, or to show cause why the order should not be made absolute.

New numbers since 1 July 2024

The Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023. The nuisance chapter is Part B, "Public nuisances", and it maps as follows.

Learn at least 133 becomes 152and 143 becomes 162. Every reported case in this area, and every textbook, cites the old numbers, so an answer should give the new number and may add the old in brackets.

Section 152: the power

Who may exercise it. A District Magistrate, a Sub-divisional Magistrate, or any other Executive Magistrate specially empowered in that behalf by the State Government.

On what material. On receiving the report of a police officer or other information, and on taking such evidence, if any, as he thinks fit.

Read those words carefully because they are the source of the section's speed. "Other information" means an application by a private citizen, a newspaper report, or the Magistrate's own knowledge. "Such evidence, if any, as he thinks fit" means he may act on the report alone. There is no complaint, no charge, no trial and no burden of proof beyond his own satisfaction.

In what cases, and clauses (a) and (b) are the environmental ones:

(a) that any unlawful obstruction or nuisance should be removed from any public place, or from any way, river or channel which is or may be lawfully used by the public;