Central · Act 28 of 1958

Section 4 — Special powers of the armed forces.

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958

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Any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the armed forces may, in a disturbed area,―

(a) if he is of opinion that it is necessary so to do for the maintenance of public order, after giving such due warning as he may consider necessary, fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law or order for the time being in force in the disturbed area prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons or the carrying of weapons or of things capable of being used as weapons or of fire-arms, ammunition or explosive substances;

(b) if he is of opinion that it is necessary so to do, destroy any arms dump, prepared or fortified position or shelter from which armed attacks are made or are likely to be made or are attempted to be made, or any structure used as a training camp for armed volunteers or utilised as a hide-out by armed gangs or absconders wanted for any offence;

(c) arrest, without warrant, any person who has committed a cognizable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognizable offence and may use such force as may be necessary to effect the arrest;

(d) enter and search without warrant any premises to make any such arrest as aforesaid or to recover any person believed to be wrongfully restrained or confined or any property reasonably suspected to be stolen property or any arms, ammunition or explosive substances believed to be unlawfully kept in such premises, and may for that purpose use such force as may be necessary.

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Next · Section 5Arrested persons to be made over to the police. →All sections / सभी धाराएँThe Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 →
More sections of this actSection 1 · Short title and extent.Section 2 · Definitions.Section 3 · Power to declare areas to be disturbed areas.Section 5 · Arrested persons to be made over to the police.Section 6 · Protection to persons acting under Act.Section 7 · Repealed.
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India Code, Government of India. Text fetched 14 Oct 2026. Source metadata reports last modification: 2019-11-29. Check the linked official text and subsequent notifications when applying a provision.

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