One of the objects of criminal law is that the earliest information must be communicated by those who are in the best position to obtain the same. S. 40, therefore, makes it the duty of every village officer (i.e., a member of a village Panchayat and the headman of a village) to forthwith communicate to the nearest Magistrate or to the officer-in-charge of the nearest Police Station, whichever is nearer, any information which he may possess in connection with the following six matters, viz.—
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(a) The residence of any notorious receiver or vendor of stolen property in or near the village;
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(b) The resort to, or through, such village of any person known or suspected to be a thug, robber, escaped convict or proclaimed offender;
(c) the commission of, or intention to commit, in or near such village, of any non-bailable offence or any offence punishable under Ss. 143, 144, 145, 147 or 148 of the Indian Penal Code, (i.e., the offences of joining an unlawful assembly and rioting, whether or not armed with deadly weapons);
(d) (i) the occurrence, in or near such village,—
(a) Of any sudden or unnatural death, or
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(b) Of any death under suspicious circumstances; or
(ii) The discovery, in or near such village, of any corpse (or part of the corpse), in circumstances which lead to a reasonable suspicion that such a death has occurred; or
(iii) The disappearance from such village of any person, in circumstances which lead to a reasonable suspicion that a non-bailable offence has been committed in respect of such person;
(e) The commission of, or intention to commit, at any place near such village, but out of India, any act which, if committed in India, would be an offence punishable under Ss. 231-238, 302, 304, 382, 392-399, 402, 435, 436, 449, 450, 457-460, 489A, 489B, 489C and 489D of the Indian Penal Code (i.e., the offence of counterfeiting coins, currency notes or bank notes, murder, culpable homicide, robbery, dacoity, mischief by fire, house-trespass, etc.)
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(f) Any matter likely to affect the maintenance of order or the prevention of crime or the safety of person or property regarding which the District Magistrate has, with the previous sanction of the State Government, directed such a person to communicate information.
Under this section, a person is bound to report information, and not a mere rumour. Thus, when a zamindar had heard of the disappearance of a man from the village, and a rumour that he had been murdered, the omission to report such a rumour to the Police was held not to be an offence. (Bhup Sing, — 1900 A.W.N 207)