SC cracks down on delayed arrests, says 24-hour clock starts from detention

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Thursday ruled that the constitutional mandate of producing an arrestee before a magistrate within 24 hours starts the moment one is detained for interrogation and not from the time when formal arrest is made by an investigating agency, since the liberty of a person is curtailed when one is detained. Noting that no artificial distinction should be created between detention and arrest, a bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S Chandurkar quashed the verdicts of high courts which had held that the 24-hour period starts only after formal arrest and not during antecedent detention necessitated by statutory procedure of seizure. Article 22(2) mandates that every person who is arrested and detained in custody has to be produced before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours of such arrest. "Article 22(2) does not sanction exclusion of the time taken for enquiry and investigation before the arresting authority could effect arrest of the detainee. This is beyond the mandate of Article 22(2) of the Constitution. Article 22(2) does not sanction creation of any buffer zone where the liberty of an individual is curtailed for investigating purposes but not formally shown as arrested. Creation or contemplation of such buffer zone is unconstitutional.

As it is common practice for police to record formal arrest much later, sometimes even a day after detaining a person for interrogation, Supreme Court's order would serve as a check on the police and other investigating agencies. The court also noted that its order was meant to eliminate custodial violence, which unfortunately takes place during the time when a person is under detention and not shown as formally arrested, in the process delaying production before the magistrate.