Powers of Superior Officers of Police — Section 36

A senior officer, say a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Navi Mumbai, walks into a police station that is not his own. Can he take over the investigation there? And when a constable shouts for help to stop a thief from running away, are you legally bound to lend a hand, or is it only a moral duty? Chapter IV of the Sanhita is short, but it deals with both questions: the reach of superior police officers, and the duty of ordinary people to help the machinery of law and order.

In two minutes

Section 30 BNSS gives a police officer superior to the officer in charge of a police station the same powers across the whole area to which he is appointed, and ss.31 to 34 impose duties on the public and village officers to assist Magistrates and police and to report specified offences.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Criminal Procedure Code 1973, Juvenile Justice Act 2015 and POCSO Act 2012 on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.