Arrest means suspension of personal liberty . It is justified by the exception of Art 21 A seizure or forcible restraint; an exercise of the power to deprive a person of his or her liberty; t hat taking or keeping of a person in custody by legal authority, especially, in response to a crimin al charge. 1. The basic and the fundamental unit of criminal justice system is arrest when , when a crime takes place the police officer in charge starts the procedure of basic investigation and in the course of investigation if the police officer has probable cause the he can make the arrest of that person . In cases of non cognizable offence warrant is to be submitted by the police to make the arrest . "Every person is considered to be innocent until proven guilty‟ , our Indian legal system works under this particular motto so even if the arrest is made under probable cause and suspicion the arrested person is still not guilty until proven and our constitution provides them with various rights and liberties for their safeguard . India being a democratic country where each lives matter and each person is provided equal treatment , even if the person has been alleged of some grave crime but still this does not give anybody the right to inforce inhuman treatment on them , often the news of custodial tortures come across mostly custodial tortures happen in course of getting “necessary” information and are justified both by the police and the people of this county but this type of barbaric treatment is a sheer violation of right to life article 21 2 of the constitution and humanity 3
So the system provides certain rights of the accused person to safeguard their interests Section( 41-60A )of CRPC deals with the rights of the arrested person 4 1- The accused has the Right to be informed of the ground of arrest [Sec-50(1)] 2- The arrested person has every right to inform his friend or relative [Sec50-A] 3- It is the duty of the officer to inform the accused of the right to bail and also to specify whether it is a bailable or non-bailable offence[Sec-50(2)] 4- The accused has the rights to be presented before the majistrate without delau[sec-56] 5- The accused has right of not being detained for more than 24hrs without judicial scrutiny [sec-57] 6- The accused has rights to be free legal aid or to be in informed about it 7- Right to consult legal practsioner [ sec-411] 8- Right to be examined by the medical practitioner[sec-54] 9- In case of arrest of a women rights are provided under[r 46-47]
CASE 1)Rudal shah v. state of Bihar & ors. AIR 1983 SC 10865 Facts- In this case a man was being arrested and sent to jail after being produced before the Magistrate . For 13 years he was in jail and no date came of his bail and 14 years passed and he did not even remember his grounds of arrest . The activist tool his case in hands Judgments – He was finally acquitted for him art. 21 has been infringed the SC gave compensation of 35,000
2)D.K. Basu v. State of west Bengal , AIR1997 S.C. 6106 Supreme court of India to prevent the custodial torture issued various guidelines to be followed in case of arrest of a person . It also issues various guidelines to be followed in case of arrest to the Director general of police and Home secretary of the union of India and states to report about the complying of guidelines Supreme Court laid down certain basic requirements to be followed in all cases of arrest or detention till legal provisions are made in that behalf as a mesure to prevent custodial torture . Hence as seen our legal system has made sufficient laws for safeguarding the interests of the detained person but still such incidents where basic rights are infringed happen , this is because of the lack of knowledge of the laws both by the people of the country and Law enforcing officials . People should know about the laws made by the judiciary for protection of their rights and liberties so that no one can use then for their harm . By this we can prevent lawlessness to a great extent and walk towards a country with better peace harmony and lawfullness.
1 https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=2437. 2 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1199182/. 3 https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/arrest.html. 4 https://www.writinglaw.com/chapter-v-41-60a-of-crpc-arrest-of-persons/. 5https://indiankanoon.org/doc/810491/.
6 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/501198/.
Author - Aeshna raghuwanshi , chankaya national law University (BALLB)
