If any place which is liable to be searched or inspected under this Chapter is closed, the person residing in, or who is in charge of, such a place must, on demand, allow the Officer executing the warrant free ingress into such place and also afford him all reasonable facilities for a search in such place. If no such facilities are afforded, the Officer may effect entrance into such place by breaking open any door or window of the place.
Before making any such search, the Officer-in-charge must call upon two or more independent and respectable inhabitants of the locality to witness the search. The search is to be made in the presence of such witnesses, and the list of all the things which are seized in the course of the search is to be prepared by the Officer and signed by the witnesses.
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The person who witnesses the search cannot be required to attend the Court as a witness, unless specially summoned by the Court for this purpose. But if any person refuses or neglects to attend and witness a search without reasonable cause, he would become liable to be punished for an offence under S. 187 of the Indian Penal Code.
