Section 81: Warrant directed to police officer for execution outside jurisdiction
Section 81 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 provides for the execution of warrants by police officers, when such execution is done beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the court or authority that issued the warrant.
It requires that when an executing police officer proposes to execute a warrant outside the local limits of the issuing court, then such officer should get an endorsement from either an Executive Magistrate or a police officer of equivalent or superior rank of the place where the warrant is sought to be executed.
An endorsement for the warrant serves to authenticate the officer exercising his warrant in a place he normally does not exercise jurisdiction. Therefore, his exercise within the execution area is legally covered.
The endorsement of the Executive Magistrate or the senior police officer becomes the valid legal authentication for the officer to exercise his jurisdiction. Moreover, with this endorsement, the local police can even be engaged in the process of executing the warrant if required so that nothing goes wrong and the law is thoroughly adhered to while so doing.
In case it appears that getting endorsement from the Executive Magistrate or police officer will consume much time to delay the warrant being executed in the due course, Section 81 provides an exemption.
The executing officer can thus execute the warrant without waiting for the endorsement to be done on such a condition.
This allows for a more prompt reaction of law enforcers during times of necessity in order not to let culprits evade due to some form of procedural delays.
