Section 103 BNSS: Persons in charge of closed place to allow search (Formerly Section 100 CrPC)

Section 103 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023: Persons in charge of closed place to allow search

Official Bare Act Text

Override / Mandate Mens Rea (Intent) Actus Reus (Conduct) Punishment Limitation Monetary

(1) Whenever any place liable to search or inspection under this Chapter is closed, any person residing in, or being in charge of, such place, shall, on demand of the officer or other person executing the warrant, and on production of the warrant, allow him free ingress thereto, and afford all reasonable facilities for a search therein.

(2) If ingress into such place cannot be so obtained, the officer or other person executing the warrant may proceed in the manner provided by sub-section (2) of section 44.

(3) Where any person in or about such place is reasonably suspected of concealing about his person any article for which search should be made, such person may be searched and if such person is a woman, the search shall be made by another woman with strict regard to decency.

(4) Before making a search under this Chapter, the officer or other person about to make it shall call upon two or more independent and respectable inhabitants of the locality in which the place to be searched is situate or of any other locality if no such inhabitant of the said locality is available or is willing to be a witness to the search, to attend and witness the search and may issue an order in writing to them or any of them so to do.

(5) The search shall be made in their presence, and a list of all things seized in the course of such search and of the places in which they are respectively found shall be prepared by such officer or other person and signed by such witnesses; but no person witnessing a search under this section shall be required to attend the Court as a witness of the search unless specially summoned by it.

(6) The occupant of the place searched, or some person in his behalf, shall, in every instance, be permitted to attend during the search, and a copy of the list prepared under this section, signed by the said witnesses, shall be delivered to such occupant or person.

(7) When any person is searched under sub-section (3), a list of all things taken possession of shall be prepared, and a copy thereof shall be delivered to such person.

(8) Any person who, without reasonable cause, refuses or neglects to attend and witness a search under this section, when called upon to do so by an order in writing delivered or tendered to him, shall be deemed to have committed an offence under section 222 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

Statutory Defined Terms in this Section: (Click any term for official legal definition)

Inquiry Sec 2(1)(g) Investigation Sec 2(1)(h) Victim Sec 2(1)(w)

Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 103

Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 prescribes the mandatory procedure for conducting searches in the presence of independent witnesses.

Evidentiary Proof & Admissibility: Section 103 mandates that before making a search under Chapter VII, the officer or other person about to make it shall call upon two or more independent and respectable inhabitants of the locality in which the place to be searched is situate, or of any other locality if no such inhabitant is available, to attend and witness the search.
Operational Evidentiary Proof & Admissibility: The search must be made in their presence, and a list of all things seized in the course of such search and of the places in which they are found shall be prepared by such officer and signed by such witnesses.

The occupant of the place searched is entitled to be present and to receive a copy of the seizure list.

Key Landmark Precedents:

State of Punjab v. Baldev Singh (1999) 6 SCC 172: The Supreme Court emphasized that statutory search procedures and the association of independent witnesses provide credibility and verifiability to recoveries, safeguarding citizens against planted evidence.
State of Rajasthan v. Teja Ram (1999) 3 SCC 507: Held that failure to associate local witnesses does not automatically render the search illegal, but puts the court on caution to scrutinize police testimony with greater circumspection.

Legal Commentary:

Section 103 establishes the procedural integrity of the recovery memo (panchnama). In criminal trials, cross-examination of panch witnesses regarding their independence, proximity to the scene, and actual contemporaneous observation of seizure remains a primary weapon for the defense.