Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita

Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) empowers specified Executive Magistrates to issue urgent preventive orders when immediate prevention or speedy remedy is desirable. Through a written order stating the material facts, a Magistrate may direct a person to abstain from an act or take specified measures concerning property in that person's possession or management.

Who may act and on what grounds

The power belongs to the District Magistrate, the Sub-divisional Magistrate, and any other Executive Magistrate specially empowered by the State Government. The Magistrate must consider that sufficient grounds exist and that immediate prevention or speedy remedy is desirable.

• The direction must be considered likely to prevent obstruction, annoyance or injury to a person lawfully employed, or danger to human life, health or safety.
• It may also seek to prevent a disturbance of public tranquillity, riot or affray.
• This is a preventive power to avert anticipated harm, not a power to determine guilt or impose punishment.

Scope, duration and procedural safeguards

An order may address a particular individual, people residing in a particular place or area, or the public generally when frequenting or visiting a particular place or area.

• An ex parte order, issued without first hearing the affected person, is permitted in an emergency or where circumstances do not allow timely service of notice.
• A Magistrate's order cannot remain in force for more than two months from its making.
• The State Government may, by notification and on the statutory grounds, extend its operation for up to six additional months from the date on which it would otherwise expire.
• The Magistrate may rescind or alter an order, including on an aggrieved person's application; the State Government may similarly reconsider its extension.
• An applicant must receive an early opportunity to be heard, and rejection of the application requires written reasons.

Relationship with the right to assemble

Article 19(1)(b) guarantees citizens the right to assemble peaceably and without arms. Article 19(3) permits reasonable restrictions in the interests of India's sovereignty and integrity or public order.

• Section 163 can support temporary restrictions on assemblies where its statutory conditions are satisfied; it does not automatically prohibit every gathering.
• Orders remain subject to judicial review, including scrutiny of their grounds, reasonableness and proportionality.