(1) Any police officer or such other officer as may be authorised by the Government in this behalf by general or special order who finds any person other than a child contravening the provisions of section 3 shall arrest such person and inform him of the grounds for such arrest and remove him immediately to the nearest receiving centre.
(2) The officer-in-charge of the receiving centre shall thereupon without delay, hold such enquiry as may be prescribed and if satisfied that the person, if released, will not resort to begging shall release him forthwith, with or without surety.
(3) If the person arrested under sub-section (1) is not released forthwith under sub-section (2) the officer-in-charge of the receiving centre shall produce him before the Executive Magistrate or the Judicial Magistrate or the Metropolitan Magistrate having jurisdiction, within a period of twenty-four hours of such arrest excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of such Magistrate provided that no person arrested under sub-section (1) shall be detained in custody beyond the said period without the authority of a magistrate.
(4) The magistrate before whom a person is produced under sub-section (3) shall hold an enquiry and if satisfied that such person has committed the offence of begging but undertakes not to commit such offence, shall release him on his furnishing a bond 1[for a sum of rupees one thousand]1
1. Inserted by Act 26 of 2003 w.e.f. 21.5.2003
(5) If any person released under sub-section (4) is again produced before any Executive Magistrate or a Judicial Magistrate or a Metropolitan Magistrate for a similar offence, and the contravention of section 3 is proved against him, he shall not be released without a surety 1[for a sum of rupees two thousand]1