Section 209: Search and seizure
This section allows the Registrar or inspector to search and seize a company's books and papers to prevent their destruction or alteration, and outlines the procedures for doing so.
The section, clause by clause
What the section says
In plain terms
(1)Where, upon information in his possession or otherwise, the Registrar or inspector has reasonable ground to believe that the books and papers of a company, or relating to the key managerial personnel or any director or auditor or company secretary in practice if the company has not appointed a company secretary, are likely to be destroyed, mutilated, altered, falsified or secreted, he may, after obtaining an order from the Special Court for the seizure of such books and papers,—
The Registrar or inspector can search and seize a company's books and papers if they believe these might be destroyed or altered, after getting an order from the Special Court, and they must allow the company to take copies of or extracts from these books and papers at its own cost.
(1)(a)enter, with such assistance as may be required, and search, the place or places where such books or papers are kept; and
(1)(b)seize such books and papers as he considers necessary after allowing the company to take copies of, or extracts from, such books or papers at its cost.
(2)The Registrar or inspector shall return the books and papers seized under sub-section (1), as soon as may be, and in any case not later than one hundred and eightieth day after such seizure, to the company from whose custody or power such books or papers were seized:
The seized books and papers must be returned to the company within 180 days, but can be kept for a further 180 days with a written order if needed, and copies or extracts can be taken before they are returned.
provisoProvided that the books and papers may be called for by the Registrar or inspector for a further period of one hundred and eighty days by an order in writing if they are needed again:
provisoProvided further that the Registrar or inspector may, before returning such books and papers as aforesaid, take copies of, or extracts from them or place identification marks on them or any part thereof or deal with the same in such other manner as he considers necessary.
(3)The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) relating to searches or seizures shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to every search and seizure made under this section.
The search and seizure must follow the same rules as the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which has its own procedures for searches and seizures.
The right-hand column is written from the section text, not quoted from it, and it has no legal force. Where the two differ, the left-hand column is the law.
Search the whole Act, or ask it a question, in the interactive browser.
Reproduced from the official India Code print for reference. Check the current text on India Code before you rely on it, and read the section alongside its Rules. Nothing here is legal advice.