BNSS Section 34 — Duty of officers employed in connection with affairs of a village to make certain report

Summary

Every village officer and every person living in a village must immediately tell the nearest Magistrate or the nearest police station about certain matters. These include: if a known receiver or seller of stolen property lives in or near the village; if a person known or reasonably suspected to be a robber, escaped convict, or proclaimed offender comes to or passes through the village; if a non-bailable offence or certain specific offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 are committed or planned in or near the village; if there is a sudden, unnatural, or suspicious death, or a corpse is found under suspicious circumstances, or a person disappears in a way that suggests a non-bailable offence; if certain serious offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 are committed or planned outside India but near the village; and any other matter the District Magistrate orders them to report to help maintain order, prevent crime, or protect people or property. The term "village" includes village lands, "proclaimed offender" includes anyone declared an offender by a court in any part of India for an act that would be a serious offence under this Sanhita, and "officer employed in connection with the affairs of the village" means a panchayat member, headman, or anyone appointed to perform village administration functions.

Official Text

(1) Every officer employed in connection with the affairs of a village and every person residing in a village shall forthwith communicate to the nearest Magistrate or to the officer in charge of the nearest police station, whichever is nearer, any information which he may possess respecting—

(a) the permanent or temporary residence of any notorious receiver or vendor of stolen property in or near such village;

(b) the resort to any place within, or the passage through, such village of any person whom he knows, or reasonably suspects, to be a robber, escaped convict or proclaimed offender;

(c) the commission of, or intention to commit, in or near such village any non-bailable offence or any offence punishable under section 189 and section 191 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023;

(d) the occurrence in or near such village of any sudden or unnatural death or of any death under suspicious circumstances or the discovery in or near such village of any corpse or part of a corpse, in circumstances which lead to a reasonable suspicion that such a death has occurred or the disappearance from such village of any person in circumstances which lead to a reasonable suspicion that a non-bailable offence has been committed in respect of such person;

(e) the commission of, or intention to commit, at any place out of India nearsuch village any act which, if committed in India, would be an offence punishable under any of the following sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, namely, 103, 105, 111, 112, 113, 178 to 181 (both inclusive), 305, 307, 309 to 312 (both inclusive), clauses

(f) and

(g) of section 326, 331or 332;

(f) any matter likely to affect the maintenance of order or the prevention of crime or the safety of person or property respecting which the District Magistrate, by general or special order made with the previous sanction of the State Government, has directed him to communicate information.

(2) In this section,—

(i) “village” includes village lands;

(ii) the expression “proclaimed offender” includes any person proclaimed as an offender by any Court or authority in any territory in India to which this Sanhita does not extend, in respect of any act which if committed in the territories to which this Sanhita extends, would be an offence punishable under any of the offence punishable with imprisonment for ten years or more or with imprisonment for life or with death under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023;

(iii) the words “officer employed in connection with the affairs of the village” means a member of the panchayat of the village and includes the headman and every officer or other person appointed to perform any function connected with the administration of the village.

Related Judgments

• SC (2025) Vol.6 p.545 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
• SC (2025) Vol.5 p.730 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
• SC (2024) Vol.7 p.979 — Supreme Court of India (2024)
• SC (2025) Vol.2 p.1588 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
• SC (2025) Vol.3 p.1309 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
• SC (2025) Vol.11 p.291 — Supreme Court of India (2025)
• .. Petitioner/Accused No.12 vs The State of Tamilnadu, — Madras High Court ()
• SC (2024) Vol.12 p.335 — Supreme Court of India (2024)

Old <-> New Code Mapping

• CrPC §40 — Duty of officers employed in connection with affairs of a village to make certain report