Section 215.   Prosecution for contempt of lawful authority of public servants, for offences against public justice and for offences relating to documents given in evidence.

(1) No Court shall take cognizance—
(a) (i) of any offence punishable under sections 204 to 224 (both inclusive but
excluding section 207) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, or
(ii) of any abetment of, or attempt to commit, such offence, or
(iii) of any criminal conspiracy to commit such offence,
except on the complaint in writing of the public servant concerned or of some other public
servant to whom he is administratively subordinate or of some other public servant who is
authorised by the concerned public servant so to do;
(b) (i) of any offence punishable under any of the following sections of the
Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, namely, sections 227 to 231 (both inclusive), 234, 235,
240 to 246 (both inclusive) and 265, when such offence is alleged to have been
committed in, or in relation to, any proceeding in any Court; or
(ii) of any offence described in section 334, or punishable under section 337,
section 340 or section 341 of the said Sanhita, when such offence is alleged to have
been committed in respect of a document produced or given in evidence in a proceeding
in any Court; or
(iii) of any criminal conspiracy to commit, or attempt to commit, or the abetment
of, any offence specified in sub-clause (i) or sub-clause (ii),
except on the complaint in writing of that Court or by such officer of the Court as that Court
may authorise in writing in this behalf, or of some other Court to which that Court is
(2) Where a complaint has been made by a public servant or by some other public
servant who has been authorised to do so by him under clause (a) of sub-section (1), any
authority to which he is administratively subordinate or who has authorised such public
servant may order the withdrawal of the complaint and send a copy of such order to the
Court; and upon its receipt by the Court, no further proceedings shall be taken on the
complaint:
Provided that no such withdrawal shall be ordered if the trial in the Court of first
instance has been concluded.
(3) In clause (b) of sub-section (1), the term “Court” means a Civil, Revenue or
Criminal Court, and includes a tribunal constituted by or under a Central, Provincial or State
Act if declared by that Act to be a Court for the purposes of this section.
(4) For the purposes of clause (b) of sub-section (1), a Court shall be deemed to be
subordinate to the Court to which appeals ordinarily lie from the appealable decrees or
sentences of such former Court, or in the case of a Civil Court from whose decrees no appeal
ordinarily lies, to the Principal Court having ordinary original civil jurisdiction within whose
local jurisdiction such Civil Court is situate:
Provided that—
(a) where appeals lie to more than one Court, the Appellate Court of inferior
jurisdiction shall be the Court to which such Court shall be deemed to be subordinate;
(b) where appeals lie to a Civil and also to a Revenue Court, such Court shall be
deemed to be subordinate to the Civil or Revenue Court according to the nature of the
case or proceeding in connection with which the offence is alleged to have been
committed.