One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: Police identity tags are not optional decoration. In India, the uniform an officer wears, including the name plate or numbered badge, is prescribed by the rules the State Government frames for its police force, and nothing in the BNS, the BNSS or the BSA says otherwise. What the law does say is narrower and sharper: while making an arrest, the officer must carry accurate, visible and clear identification of his name, and a court can be asked to take that failure seriously.
Key facts at a glance
- Policing is a State subject. Uniforms, rank badges, name plates and numbered badges come from State law and the rules each State Government frames for its own force — not from the BNS, the BNSS or the BSA.
- Section 36 of the BNSS, 2023 (it replaced Section 41B of the CrPC) makes it a statutory duty of the arresting officer to bear accurate, visible and clear identification of his name, and to prepare an arrest memorandum.
- The Supreme Court's arrest guidelines in D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal, (1997) 6 SCC 642, require name tags with designations and an arrest memo attested by a witness and countersigned by the person arrested.
- An officer who hides his identity is committing a disciplinary breach. During an arrest, he is also breaking the BNSS.
- Resisting or assaulting him because he has no name plate is itself an offence, and it will land you in far more trouble than it lands him.
- Complaints travel upward: Station House Officer, then Sub-Divisional Police Officer, then the district Superintendent or Deputy Commissioner, then the State Police Complaints Authority, and if there is ill-treatment, the State Human Rights Commission.
How these complaints usually reach a chamber
The calls do not come that night. They come the next morning, or two days after, once the person has slept and started wondering who exactly put hands on him and whether anyone can be made to answer for it.
What they describe is almost always the same shape. Someone was stopped
Facing a similar matter? Speak to a criminal lawyer in Delhi — Advocate Sudhir Rao appears in bail, trial and appellate matters before the Delhi District Courts, the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India.