If the Ahmedabad police are asking to seize your phone, the first thing you need to understand is that whether you can refuse depends entirely on whether they have a valid legal authority to do so — and this distinction protects you more than you may realise. Under Section 185 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) 2023, which replaced Section 165 of the CrPC from 1 July 2024, the police may search and seize property — including your phone — during an investigation, but only if a senior officer has recorded specific grounds in writing establishing why the seizure is necessary for the investigation. A police officer who simply asks you to hand over your phone without a written search and seizure order, without recording reasons, or without following the BNSS's procedural safeguards, has no automatic legal right to demand it, and you are entitled to ask to see the written authority before complying.

That said, refusing to cooperate with a lawfully authorised seizure can itself create legal complications, including the risk of arrest for obstruction. The smarter approach is not a flat refusal but a legally informed response — ask the officer to show you the written seizure authority under Section 185 BNSS, ensure a seizure memo (panchnama) is prepared in your presence and signed by independent witnesses as required, and have your advocate present if at all possible. Your advocate can object to any procedural irregularity on record, and procedural errors in seizure can later make the seized evidence inadmissible in your Ahmedabad criminal case. The seizure of your phone without a proper Section 185 BNSS order, or without a proper panchnama, can be challenged at trial through the mandatory Section 63(4) BSA 2023 certificate requirement for any digital evidence extracted from it.

If the phone has already been seized, do not panic — you can apply to the Ahmedabad Magistrate's Court or Sessions Court for its return once the investigation is complete, particularly if the phone is not directly material to the case. Additionally, any digital data extracted from your phone — WhatsApp messages, call records, photographs — must be accompanied by a Section 63(4) BSA 2023 certificate from the officer responsible for extraction. Without this certificate, the extracted electronic evidence is inadmissible on a formal objection raised by your advocate at the time of exhibition. This is one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked defence tools in digital evidence cases in Ahmedabad.

The Top Criminal Lawyers in Ahmedabad | Aapka Legal Advice platform connects you with advocates experienced in challenging digital evidence seizures and phone seizure procedures in Ahmedabad criminal cases. The team at Aapka Legal Advice also provides access to a distinguished panel of retired judges — including former Gujarat High Court justices and experienced former Ahmedabad Sessions Court judges — who assess the lawfulness of the seizure and advise on admissibility challenges from a judicial perspective.

When the police want to seize your phone in Ahmedabad, your rights are real, your procedural protections are strong, and a well-advised response protects both your liberty and your case.