Section 170 BNSS 2023 - Arrest to Prevent Commission of Cognizable Offences

Section 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 is a preventive-arrest provision in Chapter XII, "Preventive Action of the Police". It permits a police officer to arrest a person without a Magistrate's order and without a warrant where the officer knows of a design to commit a cognizable offence and believes that the offence cannot otherwise be prevented.

Key rule: preventive arrest under Section 170 is not automatic merely because a police officer has information about a proposed offence. The statutory test is that the officer knows of a design to commit a cognizable offence and it appears to the officer that the commission of that offence cannot otherwise be prevented.

Text of Section 170 BNSS

170. (1) A police officer knowing of a design to commit any cognizable offence may arrest, without orders from a Magistrate and without a warrant, the person so designing, if it appears to such officer that the commission of the offence cannot be otherwise prevented.

(2) No person arrested under sub-section (1) shall be detained in custody for a period exceeding twenty-four hours from the time of his arrest unless his further detention is required or authorised under any other provisions of this Sanhita or of any other law for the time being in force.

Conditions for preventive arrest under Section 170(1)

The language of Section 170(1) contains important statutory conditions. A preventive arrest under this provision requires:

a police officer who knows of a design to commit a cognizable offence;
a person identified as the person designing the commission of that offence;
an assessment by the police officer that the contemplated offence cannot otherwise be prevented; and
use of the power for prevention of the cognizable offence, not as punishment for an offence that has not yet been committed.

Meaning of "cognizable offence"

Section 2(1)(g) of the BNSS defines a "cognizable offence" as an offence for which, and a "cognizable case" as a case in which, a police officer may, in accordance with the First Schedule or under any other law for the time being in force, arrest without warrant.

Can police arrest without a warrant under Section 170?

Yes. Section 170(1) expressly authorises arrest without an order from a Magistrate and without a warrant, but only when the statutory conditions of the provision are satisfied. The power is therefore preventive and conditional rather than unlimited.

Maximum detention under Section 170(2)

A person arrested under Section 170(1) cannot be detained in custody for more than twenty-four hours from the time of arrest merely on the basis of Section 170. Detention beyond that period is permissible only when further detention is required or authorised under another provision of the BNSS or another law in force.

Important safeguard: the twenty-four-hour limit in Section 170(2) is an express statutory restriction on detention under this preventive-arrest power. Any continued custody must have a separate lawful basis.

How Sections 168, 169 and 170 work together

Provision	Subject	Function
Section 168	Police to prevent cognizable offences	Creates the general preventive power and duty of every police officer.
Section 169	Information of design to commit cognizable offences	Requires communication of information about a design to commit a cognizable offence.
Section 170	Arrest to prevent commission of cognizable offences	Authorises preventive arrest when the offence cannot otherwise be prevented, subject to the twenty-four-hour custody limit.

Nature and purpose of Section 170

Section 170 is designed to prevent an anticipated cognizable offence before it occurs. The provision must therefore be understood in the context of Chapter XII as a preventive police power. Its wording requires a connection between the known design, the person proposed to be arrested and the necessity of arrest as a means of prevention.

BNSS commencement

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 is Act No. 46 of 2023. The Central Government appointed 1 July 2024 as the date on which its provisions came into force, subject to the notified exception concerning the First Schedule entry relating to Section 106(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

Related BNSS provisions

Last reviewed: 11 September 2026.