Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
Search without warrant.—(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, whenever the special police officer 4[or the trafficking police officer, as the case may be,] has reasonable grounds for believing that an offence punishable under this Act has been or is being committed in respect of a 5[person] living in any premises, and that search of the premises with warrant cannot be made without undue delay, such officer may, after recording the grounds of his belief, enter and search such premises without a warrant. (2) Before making a search under sub-section (1), the special police officer 4[or the trafficking police officer, as the case may be,] shall call upon two or more respectable inhabitants (at least one of whom shall be a woman) of the locality in which the place to be searched is situate, to attend and witness the search, and may issue an order in writing to them or any of them so to do: 6[Provided that the requirement as to the respectable inhabitants being from the locality in which the place to be searched is situate shall not apply to a woman required to attend and witness the search.] (3) Any person who, without reasonable cause, refuses or neglects, to attend and witness a search under this section, when called upon to do so by an order in writing delivered or tendered to him, shall be deemed to have committed an offence under section 187 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860). 7[(4) The special police officer or the trafficking police officer, as the case may be, entering any premises under sub-section (1) shall be entitled to remove therefrom all the persons found therein.]