Section 45 BNSS 2023: Pursuit of Offenders into Other Jurisdictions
Section 45 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 authorises a police officer, for the purpose of making a lawful arrest without warrant, to pursue the person sought into any place in India. The provision prevents territorial boundaries within India from frustrating an otherwise lawful warrantless arrest.
What is Section 45 BNSS?
Section 45 provides territorial continuity to a lawful power of arrest without warrant. If a police officer is already authorised by law to arrest a particular person without warrant, the officer may pursue that person into any place in India for the purpose of effecting the arrest.
Key legal terms under Section 45
Police officer: A police officer who is acting within a lawful power of arrest conferred by the BNSS or another applicable law.
Arrest without warrant: An arrest made without first obtaining a judicial warrant, but only where the law independently authorises such arrest.
Authorised to arrest: Section 45 does not itself create a new ground of arrest. The officer must already possess lawful authority to arrest the person without warrant.
Pursue: To follow or continue action to apprehend the person sought to be arrested, including beyond the officer's ordinary local territorial jurisdiction.
Any place in India: The provision allows pursuit across internal territorial and jurisdictional boundaries within India, subject to the other requirements of law governing arrest and procedure.
Text of Section 45 - Pursuit of offenders into other jurisdictions
45. A police officer may, for the purpose of arresting without warrant any person whom he is authorised to arrest, pursue such person into any place in India.
Scope of the police power under Section 45
The section is short but important. Its purpose is to ensure that a person who may lawfully be arrested without warrant cannot avoid arrest merely by moving from one local police jurisdiction to another within India.
The essential condition is that the police officer must already be authorised to arrest that person without warrant. Section 45 extends the territorial reach of pursuit; it does not dispense with the substantive legal conditions that justify the arrest.
Does Section 45 itself authorise arrest without warrant?
No. The wording requires that the person be one whom the officer is already "authorised to arrest." Therefore, the legal basis for warrantless arrest must come from another provision, such as Section 35 BNSS or another applicable law.
Before relying on Section 45, the officer must therefore satisfy the legal requirements of the underlying arrest power. Section 45 addresses pursuit across jurisdictional boundaries after that authority exists.
Can police pursue a person into another State?
Section 45 uses the expression "any place in India." On its face, the territorial reach is not confined to the police officer's own district or State. A police officer who is lawfully authorised to arrest a person without warrant may pursue that person into another place in India for the purpose of making the arrest.
The actual arrest and subsequent procedure must still comply with applicable BNSS safeguards, constitutional protections, and any other procedural requirements governing inter-jurisdictional police action.
Relationship with Section 43 on how arrest is made
Section 45 determines how far lawful pursuit may continue geographically. Section 43 BNSS, by contrast, governs the manner in which the arrest itself is made, including submission to custody, resistance, use of necessary means, handcuffs in specified cases, and safeguards for women.
Relationship with search powers under Section 44
If the person being pursued enters or is believed to be inside a house or other place, Section 44 BNSS becomes relevant. That provision regulates entry, search, forced entry, and safeguards applicable to premises where the person sought to be arrested is believed to be present.
Safeguards after arrest
Territorial pursuit under Section 45 does not remove the ordinary safeguards attached to arrest. Relevant provisions include Section 46 BNSS on unnecessary restraint, Section 47 BNSS on informing the arrested person of the grounds of arrest and right to bail, and Section 48 BNSS on informing a relative or friend about the arrest.
Section 45 BNSS at a glance
- Applies only where a police officer is already authorised to arrest a person without warrant.
- Allows pursuit of that person into any place in India.
- Prevents internal territorial boundaries from frustrating a lawful warrantless arrest.
- Does not independently create a new ground for arrest.
- The underlying requirements for arrest without warrant must still be satisfied.
- The manner of arrest and post-arrest safeguards continue to be governed by the BNSS and other applicable law.
Official legal resources
This page provides general legal information. Whether a police officer is authorised to arrest without warrant in a particular case depends on the facts, the alleged offence, the applicable arrest provision, and compliance with statutory and constitutional safeguards.