Regulation 7 - Witness - Securities And Exchange Board of India (Procedure For Search And Seizure) Regulations, 2014

CHAPTER III PROCEDURE RELATING TO SEARCH AND SEIZURE Witness. 7. Before making a search under this Chapter, the authorised officer shall call upon two or more independent and respectable inhabitants of the locality in which the place to be searched is situate or of any other locality if no such inhabitant of the said locality is available or is willing to be a witness to the search, to attend and witness the search and may issue an order in writing to them or any of them so to do: Provided that the authorised officer on reasonable steps taken by him to find witness, finds that no witness is available or willing to stand as witness and on recording of the same, shall execute the warrant of authority on the execution being video graphed, and the search and seizure shall not be invalid on the mere ground that no one has stood as witness for search; Provided further that no person witnessing the search shall be compelled to be a witness in any quasi-judicial proceedings under the securities laws except as and when summoned by the Board or the authority before whom such proceedings are pending.