BNS Section 215: Refusing To Sign Statement

Definition of BNS Section 215

Section 215 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 states:
“Whoever refuses to sign any statement made by him, when required to sign that statement by a public servant legally competent to require that he shall sign that statement, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to three thousand rupees, or with both.”

Explanation and Illustration of BNS Section 215

This section deals with disobeying or refusing to cooperate with a public servant in performance of his duty. Let us break down this section to understand it better: This section is applicable to any person within the sovereign borders of India, whether citizen, resident or otherwise. It deals with the act of refusing to sign any statement made by him.

Sometimes during the course of a proceeding or an enquiry, when a person makes a statement affirming it to be true and correct and the office making the enquiry the public servant may require the person making the statement to sign a printed version of the statement verbatim so as to put on record that the person has indeed said it. A signed statement serves as a better record than an audio or video recording of the same because an audio or video recording records the events as they happen. A person can claim to be under duress or in an unstable state of mind during the time of recording such statements in video or audio. A signed statement, however, is a reaffirmation, where the person is allowed to go through what he or she said again and attest to it. If a person feels that what has been printed does not properly represent what they meant to say, then he or she can request for the statement to be re recorded to their satisfaction. In such a scenario, one cannot claim that the statement was made in duress or in the heat of the moment as the person has had the time to reassess their statement before signing it.

If the person who has made the statement refuses to sign the statement at the behest of an authorised public servant, it amounts to an offence under the provisions of Section 213. However, there are two qualifications that such an act needs to meet in order to be an offence under this section.

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