Indian Evidence Act, 1872 · Chapter IX: Of Witnesses
Section 125: Information as to commission of offences
The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 from 1 July 2024. It still applies to matters and proceedings from before that date, as the repealing law provides.
In plain words
No Magistrate or police officer can be compelled to say where they got information about an offence, and no revenue officer can be compelled to say where they got information about an offence against the public revenue.
A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.
Official text
No Magistrate or police-officer shall be compelled to say whence he got any information as to the commission of any offence, and no revenue-officer shall be compelled to say whence he got any information as to the commission of any offence against the public revenue.
Explanation.––“Revenue-officer” in this section means any officer employed in or about the business of any branch of the public revenue.]
Corresponding sections were matched by comparing the wording of both official texts, and for the IPC and BNS, also against a published correspondence table. Wording, punishments and structure often changed, so read both sections before relying on the match.
Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here.