Question

A woman died within 5 years of marriage under suspicious circumstances. Her parents complained that her in-laws used to frequently demand dowry. Under which of the following sections can a magistrate authorize autopsy of the case?

• A. Section 174 CrPC
• B. Section 176 CrPC
• C. Section 304 IPC
• D. Section 302 IPC

Hint:

Separate police inquest powers from a magistrate's inquiry power, and CrPC from IPC.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Start by separating two different kinds of law. The penal sections describe offences and their punishments, while the procedural code says who may investigate and order a post-mortem. Since the question asks specifically which section lets a magistrate authorise the autopsy, the answer has to be a procedural provision, not a penal one. That immediately rules out the two IPC choices. Section 302 IPC is merely the punishment for murder and Section 304 IPC covers culpable homicide (with 304B being the dowry death offence); neither grants any authority to order an examination of the body. Now compare the two CrPC sections. Section 174 is the police inquest, where the investigating officer looks into an unnatural death and forwards the body for autopsy, so it is a police function rather than a magistrate's. Section 176, by contrast, gives a magistrate the power to conduct an inquiry into the cause of death and to direct post-mortem and even exhumation, and it is the section invoked when a married woman dies in suspicious circumstances within seven years of marriage. That is exactly this fact pattern, so the magistrate acts under Section 176 CrPC. $B$ is correct. \[\boxed{\text{Section 176 CrPC}}\]