Section 14Part 3 — General Provisions Relating to Criminal Investigations and Proceedings
Complaint and charge
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14. (1) Criminal proceedings may be instituted either by the making of a complaint or by the bringing before a magistrate of a person who has been arrested without a warrant.
Any person, who believes from a reasonable and probable cause that an offence has been committed by any person, may make a complaint thereof to a Justice of the Peace.
A complaint may be made orally or in writing but if made orally shall be reduced to writing by the Justice of the Peace, and in either case shall be signed by the complainant and the Justice of the Peace: Provided that where proceedings are instituted by a police or other public officer, acting in the course of that person’s duty as such, a formal charge, drawn up in conformity with this Code, duly signed by such officer may be presented to the Justice of the Peace and shall for the purposes of this Code be deemed to be a complaint and shall be signed by the Justice of the Peace.
A Justice of the Peace, upon receiving any such complaint, shall, unless such complaint has been laid in the form of a formal charge under subsection (3), draw up or cause to be drawn up and shall sign a formal charge containing a statement of the offence with which the accused is charged.
When an accused person who has been arrested without a warrant is brought before a magistrate, a formal charge containing a statement of the offence with which the accused is charged shall be signed and presented by the police officer preferring the charge.
Every complaint shall be for one matter only, but the complainant may lay one or more complaints against the same person at the same time and the court hearing any one of such complaints may deal with one or more of the complaints together or separately as the interests of justice appear to require. SECTION 15 Criminal Procedure Code (2026 Revision) Page 18 Revised as at 31st December, 2025 c
Subject to any other law, no person shall be arrested without a warrant otherwise than in connection with an offence prescribed in Schedule 1 as an arrestable offence.