You Have Received a Police Notice. What Now?

मराठीत वाचा

A police officer hands over a printed notice, or telephones and asks you to come to the station. The household assumes the worst. In a large number of cases the worst is not what is happening, and understanding the difference changes how you should respond.

What the notice is

Where the police propose to investigate an allegation against a person but arrest is not warranted, they issue a notice requiring that person to attend. Since 1 July 2024 this sits in Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023; it was previously Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and a great deal of material still calls it a 41A notice.

The framework behind it is straightforward. Where the offence alleged carries a punishment of less than seven years, arrest is not to be automatic. The officer is expected to issue a notice instead, and a person who attends and cooperates is ordinarily not to be arrested — unless the officer records reasons for doing so. That approach was set out by the Supreme Court in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar, a case about reflexive arrests in matrimonial matters, and it applies well beyond them.

What to do

1. Read what it says. The notice should identify the case, the sections alleged, the police station, and when and where you are to attend.
2. Take advice before attending — not after. This is the point at which the options are widest.
3. Attend. Not attending, or avoiding service, converts a manageable position into a much worse one and hands the police a reason to arrest.
4. Cooperate with the investigation. Cooperating does not mean agreeing with the allegation, and it does not mean signing whatever is put in front of you.
5. Keep a record — the notice, the date and time you attended, who you met.

What it does not mean

• It does not mean you have been charged.
• It does not mean you will be arrested.
• It does not oblige you to make a statement admitting anything.
• It does not mean the complaint is true, or that the police think it is.

When to consider anticipatory bail

A notice is not, by itself, a reason to rush to court. But where the offence alleged is serious, where the sections invoked carry seven years or more, where there is a history between the parties suggesting the complaint will be pressed hard, or where the conduct of the investigation suggests arrest is contemplated, an application under Section 482 of the BNSS should be considered in parallel with attending.

Those two things are not alternatives. Attending the station and applying to court can and often should happen together.

Where the complaint is matrimonial

A large share of these notices arise from matrimonial complaints, frequently naming the husband’s parents, brothers and sisters alongside him. Cruelty by a husband or his relatives is now Section 85 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Where that is the background, the criminal notice is rarely the whole picture: there is usually a Domestic Violence Act application, a maintenance claim, or matrimonial proceedings either running or coming. They should be looked at together, because what is said in one is read in the others.

What to bring

• The notice itself, and the envelope if it came by post
• The FIR copy if one has been registered, and the sections invoked
• The name of the police station and the officer
• An account of the background, including any family or property dispute behind it
• Identity and address proof

This note sets out general information about procedure. It is not legal advice, and the position in any particular matter depends on its own facts and on the law as it stands at the time. Statutory references should be checked against the current text.

Related service: Bail Applications in Mumbai

See also: Bank account frozen by cyber police: how to get it released.