Are you aware about these laws?

In this blog post, I am going to be telling you guys about several different laws which I am quite sure not all people are aware of.

Indian legal system is inherited from the legal system that was laid down in the colonial era by the British, some of the laws that were introduced by the British back then are still in force, as a matter of course in an appropriate and amended manner as per today's scenario.

The Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution provides for the three lists which have different types of subjects divided among the three lists, which are:-

1. Union List ( all the subjects falling under the Union list are dealt by the Central Government )

2. State List ( all the subjects falling under the State list are dealt by the State Government )

3. Concurrent List ( both the Central Government and the State Government have powers to make laws on all the subjects falling under this list )

As of 2019, more or less there are approximately 6,609 acts that have been enacted by the state governments of all the states in India and 1,071 acts that have been enacted by the central government alone! So let us start our list of some of the fewer know laws prevailing in India.

1. As per the Police Act, 1861 the Police officers are always on duty irrespective of the fact that whether they are in their respective uniforms or not. The police officer cannot say he/she is not on the duty if he/she witnesses a crime taking place or hears a call for help.

2. Have you ever heard of bargaining or negotiation? Who am I kidding it is not the suavest of habits but we do it all the time, we bargain with the street peddlers, auto drivers, etc coming back to our topic the MRP of a product is basically the Maximum Retail Price of that specific product inclusive of all the taxes, sold in retail. According to the Consumer Goods Act, retailers aren't allowed to sell any of the products offered by them in the retail market to be sold more than the MRP of the product. The actual price of the product is somewhat 10-15% lower than the MRP and the retailers are allowed to sell the products at a price lower than the MRP of the product. It basically means that as a consumer, you have the right to bargain with the retailers and buy the products at a lower price than the mentioned in the MRP.

3. The proceedings of section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act are of Criminal in nature and are governed by the Code of Criminal Procedure. Section 138 basically provides for the offence of Dishonour of a cheque. A person under this section can be imprisoned for upto 2 years or with twice the fine of the cheque amount or with both.

4. Whoever while driving a vehicle or attempting to drive a vehicle is caught driving under the influence of any drug or alcohol and the content of the alcohol exceeds 30mg per 100ml of the blood, a fine which may extend up to Rs. 10,000/- can be imposed or you can also be imprisoned without a warrant up to 6months ( as section 202 of the Motor Vehicle Act provides power to arrest without warrant if an offence is committed by any person under sections 184, 185 or section 197, the aforementioned offence is an offence under section 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act ) or you can be punished by both and on a commission of the subsequent offence of this very same nature then a fine which may extend up to Rs. 15,000/- can be imposed or the person can be imprisoned for up to 2 years or both.

5. You are under no obligation to carry physical copies of all the important documents such as license, aadhar card, registration of the vehicle, insurance of the vehicle with yourself all the time if you want you can scan the original documents to the Digilocker application. The Digilocker is an online service provided via an application by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

6. Only a female police officer can apprehend a female and even if there is a female police officer present to arrest as per a Supreme Court Judgement, no women can be arrested after sunset and before sunrise. Section 46(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code enumerates this law, but this law is subject to exceptions, where an exceptional circumstance arises where the arrest is imperative and the police officials taking permission in writing from the magistrate and explaining why the arrest is necessary to be made after sunset.

7. Women cannot be called to the police station for investigation under section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code, The Police personnel can investigate a woman at her residence in the presence of a woman constable, her family or friends.

8. If a person is being apprehended for an offence it is the right of that person to know under which sections and law he/she is being apprehended which is guaranteed by section 50(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and it is the duty of the police personnel to forward that person before the nearest judicial magistrate after the arrest in 24 hours without unnecessary delay, the travel time is excluded from this irrespective of the fact that the arrest was made with or without a warrant, the provisions related to this are provided under sections 56 and 76 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

9. Any private person can also arrest a person if that person commits a non-bailable cognizable offence or that person is declared a proclaimed offender shall without any unnecessary delay hand that person over to the nearest police station. This is known as a citizen's arrest and is provided under section 43 of the code of criminal procedure.

10. If a police officer fails to record any information given to him under section 154(1) (FIR's are recorded under this section) of the Criminal Procedure Code in relation to a cognizable offence then he shall be liable to be punished with rigorous imprisonment of 6 months which can be extended up to 2 years and shall also be liable to fine. Section 166A provides for the same.

11. The provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act are not applicable on the people who ride bicycles and no fine under this act can be imposed upon them. Even if you jump a red light on a bicycle.

12. Article 300-A of the Indian Constitution provides that persons not to be deprived of property save by authority of law. Deprivation of property by statute within the meaning of Article 300-A must take place for the public purpose or public interest. If the state intends to appropriate the private property without the owner's consent, the procedure that has been laid down must be strictly adhered to for such acquisition. The power of urgency or the state of emergency due to which a person's property is being taken takes away the right to file objections.

Conclusion :

This was my candid attempt to make people aware of certain laws that not all people are usually aware of. I hope this blog came of some use to my readers.