Question

Under Section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, if a police officer-in-charge determines that an investigation is not warranted because the case lacks sufficient gravity, they are legally obligated to notify the informant of this decision within:

• A. 14 days
• B. 7 days
• C. 30 days
• D. 24 hours

Hint:

For BNSS questions, pay special attention to numerical timelines such as 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, and 60 days, as these are frequently tested in examinations.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Section 173 of the BNSS, 2023 is drafted to stop a complaint from being silently shelved, and it fixes a precise number of days for the officer-in-charge to tell the informant if the case will not be investigated because it lacks sufficient gravity. Testing the given options against that number resolves the question directly.

1. 14 days: this is the period actually specified in Section 173 for informing the complainant of the decision not to investigate.
2. 7 days: shorter timelines of this kind belong to other communications under the BNSS, not to this particular notice.
3. 30 days: this longer period is associated with separate procedural stages and is not the figure written into Section 173 for this notice.
4. 24 hours: this extremely short period is tied to producing an arrested accused before a magistrate, an entirely different safeguard from informing a complainant about non-investigation.

Since none of the other periods correspond to the statutory language of Section 173 while fourteen days matches it exactly, that is the operative timeline.

Answer 2

Two timelines in criminal procedure are frequently mixed up: the twenty-four hour rule for producing an arrested person before a magistrate, and the notice period under Section 173 of the BNSS for telling a complainant that their case will not be investigated. Distinguishing these two makes the answer clear.

1. 24 hours: this short window exists to prevent unlawful detention beyond a strict limit before judicial oversight begins, and it applies to a person already in custody, a situation entirely different from a decision not to investigate a complaint.
2. 14 days: by contrast, Section 173 gives the police a slightly longer, more deliberative window because the officer-in-charge must first form an opinion about the gravity of the case before communicating that opinion to the informant; fourteen days is what the provision specifies for this communication.
3. 7 days: this shorter figure would not give the officer enough procedural room contemplated by Section 173's own drafting, and it does not appear in the statute for this purpose.
4. 30 days: this longer figure exceeds what Section 173 actually allows for informing the complainant, and belongs instead to other procedural timelines under the Sanhita.

Once the twenty-four hour custody rule is set aside as addressing a different situation altogether, and the seven and thirty day options are excluded as not matching the statutory text, the fourteen-day period specified in Section 173 remains the correct timeline.

Therefore, the correct answer is 14 days.