Your smartphone can contain almost every detail of your personal and professional life — from private messages and photographs to banking information, emails, contacts and location history.
But what happens if the police confiscate your phone during a raid?
Imagine police officers conducting a raid at a workplace and taking an employee's personal phone without giving that employee any prior warning. Can they do that? Do they need a warrant? Does there have to be an FIR? And once they have the phone, can they search everything stored on it?
The important point is this: the absence of a prior warning does not, by itself, make a seizure illegal. A police raid or search can take place without prior notice in circumstances permitted by law. Under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), police have specific powers to search and seize property during an investigation.
But those powers are not absolute.
If an employee's phone is seized during a raid, the key questions are why the phone was taken, what legal power the police were exercising, whether the device was connected to the investigation and whether the required procedure was followed.
The law distinguishes between taking possession of a phone and examining the information stored on it. Seizure means the police take possession of the physical device, while a search can involve examining data such as messages, photographs, emails, applications and other digital records.
Seizing a phone does not automatically give police unrestricted access to everything stored on it. The nature of the investigation, the legal authority being used, and the safeguards that apply are relevant to how the device and its data can be examined.
Digital devices can contain extensive personal information, making the constitutional right to privacy particularly relevant. In some investigations, police may also send a seized device for forensic examination to identify, extract or preserve relevant digital evidence.
The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure in July 2024, provides the legal framework governing search and seizure.
Under Section 106 of the BNSS, police can seize property that may be alleged or suspected to have been stolen, or property found in circumstances that create suspicion that an offence has been committed. The provision also requires the seizure to be reported to the officer in charge of the police station, where applicable, and to the jurisdictional Magistrate.
A phone can therefore be seized when there is a legitimate connection between the device and an investigation. This could arise in cases involving cybercrime, fraud, threats or other offences where the phone may contain relevant evidence.
The specific legal basis will depend on the circumstances of the case and the power under which the police are acting.
Questions involving passwords, passcodes, fingerprints, facial recognition and access to digital information raise different legal and constitutional issues. The position can also depend on whether a person is a witness, suspect or accused and on the circumstances of the investigation.
If you are an accused or suspect and police ask you to provide a password or unlock your device, you can ask what legal authority they are relying on and seek legal advice before deciding how to respond.
This does not mean physically resisting the police or obstructing a lawful investigation.
The seizure should be properly documented.
The details of the device should be recorded, including its make and model and, where applicable, its IMEI number. The date, time and place of seizure and relevant details of the police officer should also be recorded.
The BNSS also contains specific safeguards for the search and seizure process. Under Section 105 of the BNSS, the process of conducting a search or taking possession of property, including preparation and signing of the seizure list, is required to be recorded through audio-video electronic means, preferably using a mobile phone. Section 106 also requires a police officer making a seizure under that provision to report it to the officer in charge, where applicable, and to the jurisdictional Magistrate. The police officer must forward the recording without delay to the District Magistrate, Sub-divisional Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate of the first class, as specified in the provision.
If police take your phone during an investigation, stay calm and avoid physically resisting. Instead, focus on documenting the seizure and understanding the legal basis for it.
Police can seize your phone when authorised by law and when the device is relevant to the circumstances being investigated. But taking possession of the phone does not automatically give police unrestricted access to everything stored on it. The legal basis for the seizure, the procedure followed and the way the device and its data are handled all matter.