Can You Join a New Company Without a Relieving Letter?

In practice, people find out in one of three ways. A call comes from a number that does not pick up again. A written notice is left at the address on record, or arrives by registered post. Or a relative rings to say the police came looking and asked where you were. All three mean the same thing — an investigation is running and your name has come up in it.

We usually have only one side of the story at this stage, and the police file is not open to you. That is ordinary, not sinister. What it does mean is that your first reply is written before you know precisely what the complainant has alleged. So it pays to be short, factual and non-committal.

What the notice usually is

Most notices served in a criminal investigation in India are either a direction to appear before an investigating officer, or a request for documents and information. The one that lands at your door is generally issued under the current procedure law. For anything registered on or after 1 July 2024, that is Section 35 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. For older cases still under investigation, the same kind of notice goes out under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The language differs slightly; the effect is the same.

The critical thing the notice may not tell you is your status. You could be a witness, someone the complainant has named, or both. Investigators are not obliged to spell that out, and often they do not know themselves at the time they sign it.

Key facts

• A notice to appear is not an arrest, and no arrest is on your record until it actually happens.
• Ignoring a notice or skipping the stated date gives the officer grounds to seek a warrant. That is the point at which a manageable matter becomes a hard one.
• The notice is usually time-bound. The date and time printed on it is the date that matters, not the date you happened to open the envelope.
• You are entitled to know the grounds on which you are being called, and to have a lawyer present when you appear.
• Article 20(3) of the Constitution protects you from being compelled to be a witness against yourself.
• Under the witness-attendance provision (Section 160 CrPC, now Section 179 of the BNSS), a woman cannot be required to attend at a police station, and the examination is to be conducted at her residence.
• Statements made to a police officer during investigation are not signed and their use in court is restricted, but anything you hand over voluntarily, including documents, is fair game.

How should you respond to a police notice?

In writing, through a lawyer, and quickly. A short reply that identifies you, acknowledges receipt, seeks a copy of the FIR or complaint if one has been registered, and states that you will cooperate is almost always the right first move. It reads as compliance, which is what the officer wants, and it keeps you from answering questions before you know the allegation.

The order matters more than the speed. Get the paper in front of a lawyer before you ring the officer back, not after.

Step one: read what section is quoted

The section named in the notice tells you a great deal. An offence punishable with up to seven years is treated differently from one carrying a longer term, both for how arrest is approached and for what bail you may eventually need. If the notice names no section at all, that itself is something to ask about in your reply.

Step two: find out whether an FIR exists

There is a difference between a preliminary enquiry and a registered FIR. You are entitled to a copy of the FIR if one has been registered and you are named in it, and in many cases the officer will simply give you the crime number on request. That number lets your lawyer pull the details and see what the complainant has actually said. If no FIR exists and the police refuse to register one, that is a separate problem with its own remedy, but it changes how you reply here.

Step three: reply in writing

Send the reply by email to the address on the notice, and also by registered post or courier to the police station, keeping the receipt. Oral assurances mean nothing six weeks later when someone asks why you did not turn up. If there is a document the officer has asked for and you have it, say when you will produce it and then produce it.

Step four: appear, with a lawyer

If the notice requires your physical presence, go on the stated date. Do not send a cousin. Do not go alone if the matter is serious. Your lawyer can seek to be present during the examination, and can intervene if questioning drifts into areas outside the subject of the notice. In practice, many officers will finish the examination in under an hour when the person is polite and represented.

If the date on the notice has already passed

This happens more often than anyone admits. The notice goes to an old address, or to a family member who does not pass it on. Do not wait for the next one. Write immediately, explain the delay in one sentence, give your current address, and offer a date within the next few days. Courts look at whether you were evading or merely unaware, and a prompt written reply after a missed date is the difference between the two.

What you should not do is call the officer to apologise and assume it is settled. Get it in writing.

When you may need anticipatory bail

If the offence alleged carries a possible sentence of three years or more and the officer has indicated she intends to arrest you, or if a warrant has already been issued, the question changes from replying to a notice to applying for bail in anticipation of arrest. That application lies before the Sessions Court or the High Court under Section 482 of the BNSS, the provision that replaced Section 438 CrPC. This is not a step to take on your own reading of the file. The timing, the court, and the conditions offered all matter.

The BNSS also requires recorded reasons before arresting someone who has been served a notice, and for offences punishable with three to seven years, approval from a senior officer. The Supreme Court has laid down guidelines on when arrest is appropriate in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI, and the earlier line of cases under Section 41 CrPC still informs how a Sessions Court will read the file. The point for you is narrow: an appearance made in response to a notice is generally not an arrest, and the officer who wants to convert it into one has to justify that on paper.

What to bring to a first consultation

• The notice itself, front and back, including the signature and any reference number.
• The envelope or cover, if you still have it, with the postal date.
• Any earlier correspondence with the police, including WhatsApp messages from an officer.
• Whatever documents the dispute concerns, in the order they were created.
• A short timeline in your own words — dates down the left, one line each.

You do not need to prepare a defence at that first meeting. You need to hand over the paper and say what happened, in sequence.

Frequently Asked Questions

What to send, and where

If you have received a police notice and are not sure whether it requires you to appear or merely to produce documents, send me the notice, the date you received it, and a two-line note explaining what the matter appears to be about. If an FIR exists, include the crime number. Do not send money, do not send originals, and do not travel to another city before someone has read the paper. You can write to /contact-us or book a slot at /book.

This article is general information about Indian law and is not legal advice on your own situation. The correct step depends on the section quoted in your notice, the stage of the investigation, and the court that has jurisdiction over you.

Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India