Section 85: Search of the person and seizure of evidence
Statutory text (Thai original)
เจ้าพนักงานผู้จับหรือรับตัวผู้จับไว้ มีอำนาจค้นตัวผู้ต้องหา และยึดสิ่งของต่าง ๆ ที่อาจใช้เป็นพยานหลักฐานได้การค้นนั้นจักต้องทำโดยสุภาพ ถ้าค้นผู้หญิงต้องให้หญิงอื่นเป็นผู้ค้นสิ่งของใดที่ยึดไว้เจ้าพนักงานมีอำนาจยึดไว้จนกว่าคดีถึงที่สุด เมื่อเสร็จคดีแล้วก็ให้คืนแก่ผู้ต้องหาหรือแก่ผู้อื่นซึ่งมีสิทธิเรียกร้องขอคืนสิ่งของนั้น เว้นแต่ศาลจะสั่งเป็นอย่างอื่น
English translation
The officer who makes the arrest or who receives the arrested person has the power to search the body of the accused and to seize the various articles that may be used as evidence. Such search must be conducted with propriety; if a woman is searched, another woman must be the searcher. Any article seized may be retained by the officer until the case is final. When the case is concluded, it shall be returned to the accused or to another person who has the right to claim the return of that article, unless the court orders otherwise.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 85 confers the power to search the arrested person and to seize potential evidence, subject to safeguards on decency and same-sex searching for women. It also sets the custody-of-property regime: seized articles may be held until the case is final, then returned to the accused or another rightful claimant unless the court orders otherwise. Within Chapter 1 it follows the arrest and handover provisions of sections 83 and 84 and is complemented by section 85/1, which lets owners apply to recover non-contraband items during the investigation. It is distinct from the search powers in Chapter 2 (Search).
Why this matters in practice
If your property is seized on arrest, keep the seizure record: the item can be held only until the case is final and must then be returned unless the court forfeits it. A female suspect who is body-searched by a man may have grounds to challenge the search. Where the seized item is valuable and you want it back during the case, a lawyer can pursue the recovery route; consider a consultation with a Thai lawyer to protect your rights.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
-
Supreme Court Judgment No. 814/2565 (2022)
Officials empowered to seize goods connected with an offense (here customs officers) may hold the seized goods until the criminal case is final, consistent with Section 85 paragraph three.
The court upheld the customs authority's power to detain the disputed imported goods until the criminal case was final, referring to Section 85 paragraph three on retaining seized articles.
-
Supreme Court Judgment No. 1856/2568 (2025)
Where a claimant sues a State agency to answer for a wrongful act done by its officer in the performance of his duties under section 5 paragraph one of the Act on Liability for Wrongful Acts of Officials B.E. 2539, the tort prescription in section 448 paragraph one of the Civil and Commercial Code does not apply, that provision governing a claim by the injured person against the wrongdoer or against a person jointly liable with him. As the Act fixes no period of its own, the general ten-year prescription in section 193/30 applies, and it runs from the time the claim could first be enforced, under section 193/12. Where the claim is that a seized vehicle was not returned, that time is the date the criminal case became final, being when the officer's duty to return the vehicle under section 85 arose.
The plaintiff sued a State agency to answer for the act of its officer in relation to a seized car which had not been returned. The Supreme Court held that a claim against a State agency under section 5 paragraph one of the Act on Liability for Wrongful Acts of Officials B.E. 2539 is not governed by the one-year tort prescription in section 448 paragraph one, which applies where the injured person sues the wrongdoer or a person jointly liable with him. The Act fixing no prescription of its own, the general ten-year period in section 193/30 applied, running under section 193/12 from the time the claim could first be enforced, namely the date the criminal case became final, when the duty to return the seized car under section 85 arose. The account of a police committee being formed and resolving to hand the car over was background recited by the Court, not a rule it laid down about how officers must administer section 85.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 25 Supreme Court decisions (1951 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 2289/2568 (2025)
- Decision 1856/2568 (2025)
- Decision 6877/2559 (2016)
- Decision 55/2557 (2014)
- Decision 2311/2543 (2000)
- Decision 4829/2539 (1996)
- Decision 2847/2536 (1993)
- Decision 3711/2534 (1991)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Thai Penal Code s. 91 6
- Thai Penal Code s. 83 6
- Thai Penal Code s. 78 5
- Section 131 5
- Thai Penal Code s. 157 4
- Thai Penal Code s. 90 4
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
Can police search my body when they arrest me in Thailand?
Yes. Section 85 lets the arresting or receiving officer search the accused and seize items that may be evidence, but the search must be done with propriety and a woman must be searched by another woman.
When will seized property be returned?
Under Section 85, an officer may keep a seized article until the case is final, and when the case ends it must be returned to the accused or another rightful claimant unless the court orders otherwise.
Must a woman be searched by a woman?
Yes. Section 85 expressly requires that if a woman is searched, another woman must conduct the search.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Criminal Procedure Code, s. 85 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Criminal Procedure Code (Thailand), s. 85. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-85/ (accessed 1 September 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.วิ.อ. มาตรา 85 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-85/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-85/"><p>The officer who makes the arrest or who receives the arrested person has the power to search the body of the accused and to seize the various articles that may be used as evidence. Such search must be conducted with propriety; if a woman is…</p><footer>Criminal Procedure Code, s. 85 (Thailand): <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-85/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.