Policing and Law
What Policing and Law tests
Questions come from criminal procedure, substantive criminal law, evidence and special statutes, plus policing doctrine - FIR and investigation, arrest and custody, bail, human rights, cybercrime, and the new criminal codes that replaced the IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act from 1 July 2024 (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam).
Core rules
- FIR: information about a cognizable offence is recorded under Section 173 BNSS (earlier Section 154 CrPC), read over to the informant and signed; a copy goes free of cost.
- Zero FIR: any station registers it even if the offence occurred elsewhere, then transfers it.
- Non-cognizable cases: entry in the station diary and the magistrate's permission before investigation (Section 174 BNSS, earlier Section 155 CrPC).
- Arrest safeguards: grounds of arrest communicated, arrest memo attested, production before a magistrate within 24 hours (Article 22(2)), medical examination, and the D.K. Basu guidelines.
- Evidence: a confession to a police officer is inadmissible; recovery is proved by the fact discovered, not by the confession itself.
Worked example
A motorcycle is stolen in another district and the owner reports it at your station. What do you do? Reasoning: theft is a cognizable offence, so jurisdiction does not bar registration. Register a Zero FIR, begin immediate inquiry, and transfer the case to the station having jurisdiction. Refusing because the place is outside our limits is the wrong answer and a common option.
Traps
- Cognizable does not automatically mean non-bailable, or the reverse.
- The 24-hour limit runs from the moment of arrest, excluding travel time.
- Special Acts (POCSO, NDPS, JJ Act) override ordinary procedure on arrest and recording of statements.
- Under the BNSS the FIR and case-diary provisions are renumbered - expect both old and new numbering in options.