Indian Penal Code, 1860 · Chapter IX: Of Offences by or Relating to Public Servants
Section 166A: Public servant disobeying direction under law
The Indian Penal Code, 1860 was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 from 1 July 2024. It still applies to offences and proceedings from before that date.
Whoever, being a public servant,—
(a) knowingly disobeys any direction of the law which prohibits him from requiring the attendance at any place of any person for the purpose of investigation into an offence or any other matter, or
(b) knowingly disobeys, to the prejudice of any person, any other direction of the law regulating the manner in which he shall conduct such investigation, or
(c) fails to record any information given to him under sub-section (1) of section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), in relation to cognizable offence punishable under section 326A, section 326B, section 354, section 354B, section 370, section 370A, section 376, section 376A, [section 376AB, section 376B, section 376C, section 376D, section 376DA, section 376DB], section 376E or section 509, shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to two years, and shall also be liable to fine.
State amendments to this section
Arunachal Pradesh Amendment of section 166A.—In section 166A of the principal Act, in clause (c), for the words, figures and letters “section 326A, section 326B, section 354, section 354A, section 370, section 370A, section 376, section 376A, section 376B, section 376C, section 376D, section 376E or section 509” the words, figures and letters “section 326A, section 326B, section 354, sub-sections (2) and (3) of section 354A, section 354B, section 354C, sub-sections (2) of section 354D, section 370, section 370A, section 376, section 376A, section 376AA, section 376B, section 376C, section 376D, section 376DA, section 376E or section 509” shall be substituted. [Vide Arunachal Pradesh Act 3 of 2019, s. 3]
Corresponding sections were matched by comparing the wording of both official texts, and for the IPC and BNS, also against a published correspondence table. Wording, punishments and structure often changed, so read both sections before relying on the match.
Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here.