Section 16 of The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025: Search and seizure of property.

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025

Act 32 of 2025
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology

About this Act

An Act to promote and regulate the online gaming sector including e-sports, educational games and social gaming; to provide for the appointment of an Authority for coordinated policy support, strategic development and regulatory oversight of the sector; to prohibit the offering, operation, facilitation, advertisement, promotion and participation in online money games through any computer resource, mobile device or the internet, particularly where such activities operate across State borders or from foreign jurisdictions; to protect individuals, especially youth and vulnerable populations, from the adverse social, economic, psychological and privacy-related impacts of such games; to ensure the responsible use of digital technologies; to maintain public order and protect public health; to safeguard the integrity of financial systems and the security and sovereignty of the State; to establish a uniform national level legal framework in the public interest; and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

All sections

    (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, any officer authorised under section 15 may enter any place, whether physical or digital, and search and arrest without warrant any person found therein who is reasonably suspected of having committed or of committing or of being about to commit any offence under this Act.
    (2) Where any person is arrested under sub-section (1) by an officer other than a police officer as referred to in sub-section (1), such officer shall, without unnecessary delay, take or send the person arrested before a magistrate having jurisdiction in the case or before the officer-in-charge of a police station.
    (3) The provisions of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 shall, subject to the provisions of this section, apply, so far as may be, in relation to any entry, search or arrest made under this section.
    Explanation.—For the purposes of this section, “any place” shall include any premises, building, vehicle, computer resource, virtual digital space, electronic records or electronic storage device and the officer may, if necessary, gain access to such computer resource, virtual digital space, electronic records or electronic storage device by overriding any access control or security code, where such code thereof is not available.