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Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023

Section 137, BSA: Witness not excused from answering on ground that answer will criminate

Pundora · Published 3 October 2026

Section 137 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, in the Act's own words, with the Evidence Act provision it replaces.

What it replaces

BSA provisionEvidence Act provisionRelation
Section 137Section 132corresponds

From the Bureau of Police Research and Development's official comparison summary (source below). The whole table: Evidence Act to BSA.

The section

137. Witness not excused from answering on ground that answer will criminate.

A witness shall not be excused from answering any question as to any matter relevant to the matter in issue in any suit or in any civil or criminal proceeding, upon the ground that the answer to such question will criminate, or may tend directly or indirectly to criminate, such witness, or that it will expose, or tend directly or indirectly to expose, such witness to a penalty or forfeiture of any kind: Provided that no such answer, which a witness shall be compelled to give, shall subject him to any arrest or prosecution, or be proved against him in any criminal proceeding, except a prosecution forgiving false evidence by such answer.

The text is India Code's consolidated text as loaded into Pundora's statute corpus on 1 September 2026. A section quoted in a draft checked by Pundora is checked against this text.

Sources

  1. India Code: Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, section 137 (read 1 September 2026)
  2. Bureau of Police Research and Development: comparison summary, BSA to Evidence Act (read 1 September 2026)

The Act's own words, from India Code. If the text here differs from the Gazette, the Gazette governs; write to contact@pundora.in and it will be corrected and dated.