Breath tests
AI Assist
Summary
Uniformed police or authorised Motor Vehicles officers may require any driver or person attempting to drive in a public place to give one or more breath specimens when there is reasonable suspicion of drink or drug driving. After an accident the test can be done at or near the scene, at a police station, or at a hospital; a hospital inpatient cannot be forced to give a specimen if the treating doctor is not notified or objects. If an approved device indicates alcohol, or if a person refuses and the officer reasonably suspects alcohol, the officer may arrest without warrant except while the person is an indoor hospital patient. Breath test results are admissible in evidence.
Example
Ravi swerves and a uniformed police officer reasonably suspects he is intoxicated, so the officer asks for a breath specimen at the roadside. Ravi refuses; the officer, suspecting alcohol, arrests him without a warrant and gives him a chance to provide a specimen at the police station. The breath test result is then admissible in evidence.
Bare Act
Enacted text(1) A police officer in uniform or an officer of the Motor Vehicles Department, as may be authorised in this behalf by that Department, may require any person driving or attempting to drive a motor vehicle in a public place to provide one or more specimens of breath for breath test there or nearby, if such police officer or officer has any reasonable cause to suspect him of having committed an offence under section 185:
Provided that requirement for breath test shall be made (unless, it is made) as soon as reasonably practicable after the commission of such offence.
(2) If a motor vehicle is involved in an accident in a public place and a police officer in uniform has any reasonable cause to suspect that the person who was driving the motor vehicle at the time of the accident had alcohol in his blood or that he was driving under the influence of a drug referred to in section 185 he may require the person so driving the motor vehicle, to provide a specimen of his breath for a breath test—
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(a) in the case of a person who is at a hospital as an indoor patient, at the hospital,
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(b) in the case of any other person, either at or near the place where the requirement is made, or, if the police officer thinks fit, at a police station specified by the police officer:
Provided that a person shall not be required to provide such a specimen while at a hospital as an indoor patient if the registered medical practitioner in immediate charge of his case is not first notified of the proposal to make the requirement or objects to the provision of a specimen on the ground that its provision or the requirement to provide it would be prejudicial to the proper care or treatment of the patient.
(3) If it appears to a police officer in uniform, in consequence of a breath test carried out by him on any person under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) that the device by means of which the test has been carried out indicates the presence of alcohol in the person’s blood, the police officer may arrest that person without warrant except while that person is at a hospital as an indoor patient.
(4) If a person, required by a police officer under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) to provide a specimen of breath for a breath test, refuses or fails to do so and the police officer has reasonable cause to suspect him of having alcohol in his blood, the police officer may arrest him without warrant except while he is at a hospital as an indoor patient.
(5) A person arrested under this section shall while at a police station, be given an opportunity to provide a specimen of breath for a breath test there.
(6) The results of a breath test made in pursuance of the provisions of this section shall be admissible in evidence.
ExplanationsFor the purposes of this section “breath test”, means a test for the purpose of obtaining an indication of the presence of alcohol in a person’s blood carried out on one or more specimens of breath provided by that person, by means of a device of a type approved by the Central Government by notification in the Official Gazette, for the purpose of such a test.
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