Chapter VI EXECUTIVE DUTIES AND POWERS OF POLICE OFFICERS

1. (1) It shall be the duty of every police officer to ensure compliance with the provisions of this Act or any rule, regulation or order made thereunder and for that purpose such police officer may,—
   • (a) warn persons who from ignorance fail to comply with any provision of this Act or any rule, regulation or order made thereunder;
   • (b) require any person acting or about to act contrary to any provision of this Act or rule, regulation or order made thereunder, to desist from so doing;
   • (c) subject to the provisions of sub-sections (2) and (3), arrest any person contravening any provision of this Act or any rule, regulation or order made threunder, where such contravention is an offence punishable under this Act;
   • (d) seize any object used, or about to be used, in contravening, or in contravention of, the provisions of this Act or any rule, regulation or order made thereunder, where such contravention is an offence punishable under this Act.
2. (2) A police officer shall not arrest any person under clause (c) of sub-section (1) without a warrant issued by a Metropolitan Magistrate, unless such person,—
   • (a) has contravened any regulation made under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 28;
   • (b) has contravened any order or notification made under section 29, sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) of section 30, section 32, section 47, section 48 or sub-section (1) of section 57;
   • (c) commits in the presence of such police officer an offence punishable under section 97, sub-section (1) of section 108, clause (a), (b) or (c) of section 110 or sub-section (2) of section 113 in respect of the contravention of any order made under section 33 or section 34;
   • (d) has committed, or is reasonably suspected to have committed, an offence punishable under section 100 in relation to any dwelling house, private premises or any other land or ground attached thereto: Provided that the person in possession or having charge of that dwelling house, private premises or land or ground complains of the commission of such offence;
   • (e) has committed, or is reasonably suspected to have committed an offence punishable under section 101, section 102 or clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 113;
   • (f) commits in his presence in any street or public place any non-cognizable offence punishable under this Act or any rule or regulation made thereunder if such person—
     • (i) after being warned by the police officer persists in committing such offence; or
     • (ii) refuses to accompany the police officer to a police station on being required so to do.
3. (3) The Commissioner of Police or any other police officer especially empowered in this behalf by the Commissioner of Police may arrest without a warrant issued by a Metropolitan Magistrate any person who has committed an offence punishable under section 92.

It shall be the duty of every police officer—

1. (a) promptly to serve every summons and obey and execute every warrant or other order lawfully issued to him by the competent authority and to comply with all lawful commands of his superior;
2. (b) to the best of his ability, to obtain intelligence concerning the commission of cognizable offences or designs to commit such offences and to lay such information and to take such other steps consistent with law and with the orders of his superiors as shall be best calculated to bring offenders to justice and to prevent the commission of cognizable and, within his view, of non-cognizable offences;
3. (c) to prevent to the best of his ability the commission of public nuisances;
4. (d) to apprehend without unreasonable delay all persons whom he is legally authorised to apprehend and for whose apprehension there is sufficient reason;
5. (e) to aid any other police officer when called upon by such other police officer or in the case of need in the discharge of the duty of such other police officer, in such ways as would be lawful and reasonable on the part of the officer aided;
6. (f) to prevent the breach of the public peace;
7. (g) to afford every assistance within his power to disabled or helpless persons in the streets;
8. (h) to take charge of intoxicated persons and of lunatics at large, who appear dangerous or incapable or taking care of themselves;
   • (i) to take prompt measures to procure necessary help for any person under arrest or in custody, who is wounded or sick and whilst guarding or conducting any such person to have due regard to his condition;
9. (j) to arrange for the proper sustenance and shelter of every person who is under arrest or in custody;
10. (k) in conducting searches, to refrain from needless rudeness and the causing of unnecessary annoyance;
11. (l) in dealing with women and children, to act with strict regard to decency and with reasonable gentleness;
12. (m) to use his best endeavours to prevent any loss or damage by fire;
13. (n) to use his best endeavours to avert any accident or danger to the public;
14. (o) to regulate and control the traffic in the streets, to prevent obstructions therein and to the best of his ability, to prevent the contravention of any rule, regulation or order made under this Act or any other law in force for observance by the public in or near the streets;
15. (p) to keep order in the streets and at and within public bathing and washing places, fairs, temples and all other places of public resort and in the neighbourhood of places of public worship;
16. (q) to regulate resort to public bathing and washing places and all other places of public resort, to prevent overcrowding there and to the best of his ability, to prevent the contravention of any regulation or order lawfully made for observance by the public at such place; and
17. (r) to discharge such other duties as are imposed upon him by any law for the time being in force.

Subject to the provisions of this Act and the rules, regulations and orders made thereunder, every police officer may, for the purpose of discharging any of the duties referred to in section 59 or section 60 enter without a warrant and inspect any place of public resort which he has reason to believe is used as a place for the storing, sale or consumption of intoxicating drinks or narcotics or a place for resort of loose and disorderly characters.

When in a street or a place of public resort a person is in possession or suspected to be in possession of any article which a police officer in good faith suspects to be stolen property, such police officer may search such person and may require an account in relation to any article found in his possession and should the account given by the possessor be manifestly false or suspicious, may detain such article after giving to the possessor a receipt in the prescribed form and report the facts to a Metropolitan Magistrate who shall thereupon proceed according to the provisions of sections 457, 458 and 459 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974).

1. (1) The Administrator may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare any specified service to be an essential service to the community.
2. (2) A declaration made under sub-section (1) shall remain in force for one month in the first instance, but may be extended from time to time by a like notification.
3. (3) Upon a declaration being made under sub-section (1) and so long as it remains in force, it shall be the duty of every police officer to obey any order given by any superior officer in relation to any employment in connection with the service specified in the declaration.

A police officer of a rank superior to that of a constable may perform any duty assigned by law or by a lawful order to any officer subordinate to him, and in the case of any duty imposed on such subordinate, a superior may aid, supplement, supersede, or prevent any action of such subordinate by his own action or that of any person lawfully acting under his command or authority, whenever the same shall appear necessary or expedient for giving more complete or convenient effect to the law or for avoiding any infringement thereof.

1. (1) All persons shall be bound to comply with the reasonable directions given by a police officer in the discharge of his duties under this Act.
2. (2) Where any person resists, refuses or fails to comply with any direction referred to in sub-section (1), a police officer may, without prejudice to any other action that he may take under any other provision of this Act or any other law for the time being in force, remove such person and either produce him before a Metropolitan Magistrate or, in trivial cases, release him when the occasion which necessitated the removal has ceased to exist: Provided that the person so removed shall in all cases be produced before the Metropolitan Magistrate or released, as the case may be, within a period of twenty-four hours of such removal.