Section 303 BNSS

Section 303 BNSS, Legal Provisions for Custody Restrictions

The Ministry of Home Affairs recently invoked Section 303 to restrict the movement of a gangster, preventing him from being taken out of jail for a year.

Legal Provisions for Custody Restrictions

Section – 267 Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC): A criminal court is empowered to issue an order to produce a person facing trial before the court to attend the proceedings against him, to ensure a fair trial.
Section – 268 (CrPC): Allows the state government to restrict certain prisoners from being removed from prison for trial or any other purpose.
This section is now replaced by Section 303 – Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which replaced the CrPC.
Section – 303 outlines three criteria for invoking these orders:
- Nature of the offence committed by the person.
- Likelihood of disturbing public order if the person is moved out of prison.
- Considerations of public interest.

Types of Custody

Police Custody: Immediate physical custody by the police of a person who has committed a crime. Suspects can be interrogated by police.
Judicial Custody: In Judicial Custody, the accused is kept in jail by the order of the concerned magistrate.
- When the accused is in judicial custody the police have no right of interrogation.
- However, the court may allow the interrogations to be conducted if it opines the interrogation is necessary under the facts produced before the court.

UPSC PYQ

Q. With reference to India, consider the following statements: (2021)

Judicial custody means an accused is in the custody of the concerned magistrate and such The accused is locked up in a police station, not in jail.
During judicial custody, the police officer in charge of the case is not allowed to interrogate the suspect without the approval of the court.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: B