In the hours after a sexual offence against a child, the family's first institutional contact is usually not a police station but a hospital — and the law has something precise to say about that encounter. Section 397 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, carrying forward Section 357C of the CrPC, obliges all hospitals, public or private, whether run by the Centre, the State, local bodies or any other person, to provide first-aid or medical treatment, free of cost, to victims of specified offences — including offences under the POCSO Act — and to inform the police of the incident. The POCSO Rules reinforce the duty with the concept of emergency medical care that cannot wait for formalities. This explainer sets out the right, the hospital's obligations, and what to do when they are breached.
The duty, decomposed
Who owes it
All hospitals — government, municipal, charitable and fully private. The section was drafted to end the practice of private facilities turning victims toward government hospitals.
What is owed
First-aid or medical treatment, free of cost. In POCSO practice this is read with the Rules' emergency medical care: stabilisation and treatment rendered promptly by the facility the child first reaches.
The reporting leg
The hospital must immediately inform the police of the incident — which also connects the child to the protective machinery: the support person, the Child Welfare Committee and compensation processes.
The sanction
Non-treatment is criminalised; the obligation is enforceable, not aspirational.
What emergency care should include for a child victim
Good practice — reflected in the POCSO framework and the health ministry's protocols for responding to survivors of sexual violence — treats the first clinical contact as having four components: treatment of injuries and medical stabilisation; prophylaxis appropriate to the case, including prevention of infection and, where relevant, emergency contraception for adolescent victims; psychological first aid, with the examination and history-taking conducted by trained personnel in the presence of a person the child trusts; and careful documentation, since the clinical record made in the first hours often becomes significant evidence. None of this may be conditioned on the registration of an FIR, on payment, or on the family's production of documents.
For families, in the moment: go to the nearest functioning hospital — public or private — and ask for emergency care, stating that the case involves a child. Do not wash clothes or clean up before the hospital visit if an offence may need to be proved, however strong the instinct. The hospital will inform the police; the family does not lose control of anything by the hospital doing its statutory duty, and the child's statement remains to be recorded through the child-friendly procedures the law prescribes.
When the duty is breached
Why this provision matters to the criminal case
Beyond its humanitarian core, Section 397 quietly serves the trial. Prompt treatment produces prompt documentation; prompt documentation anchors the prosecution against the delays and pressures that erode child-victim cases. Conversely, defence counsel scrutinise the first medical record closely, and a gap between incident and first contact — sometimes caused by a hospital's unlawful refusal — becomes a cross-examination theme. A legal system that insists on immediate, unconditional care is also building the most reliable evidence it will ever get.
At a glance: free treatment at any hospital, immediately, with no preconditions; hospital informs police; refusal is punishable; forensic examination is separate and consent-based; and the first clinical record should be obtained and preserved by the family's counsel at the earliest stage of the case.
Note: this explainer is for general information only and is not legal or medical advice. This is a sensitive subject; the identity of victims of sexual offences is protected by law.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which victims does Section 397 BNSS cover?
Victims of the offences the section enumerates — the acid attack and sexual offence provisions of the BNS (and their IPC predecessors for older incidents) and offences under the POCSO Act. For these, every hospital must provide free first-aid or medical treatment and immediately inform the police.
Can a private hospital insist on payment, a police complaint or an ID first?
No. The duty is to treat first, free of cost — the statutory design is that medical care precedes and is independent of the criminal process. The POCSO framework treats emergency medical care as something rendered without demanding documentation or procedural compliance as a precondition. The hospital's separate duty to inform the police is its own obligation, not a burden it can shift onto the family as a condition of treatment.
What happens to a hospital that refuses?
Refusal to treat is itself an offence under the criminal code (the BNS provision corresponding to Section 166B IPC), punishing non-compliance with the treatment obligation with imprisonment or fine. Administrative consequences under health care establishment regulation can follow in parallel.
Is the medico-legal examination the same thing as this treatment?
No. The forensic examination of a victim for evidentiary purposes follows its own provisions, including the consent requirements and, for children, the presence of a trusted person. Section 397 is about care — stabilisation, treatment of injuries, prophylaxis and psychological first response. A victim is entitled to the care whether or not an examination or FIR ever happens.