Supreme Court's major order against police violating the 24-hour arrest rule

According to a TV9 Gujarati report, the Supreme Court delivered an important verdict regarding arrest and detention on Wednesday, 4 November. In this seven-point ruling, the court clarified that the 24-hour rule cannot be violated. The bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan stated that if the 24-hour rule is breached, the accused must be released immediately, and the court has also issued important guidelines for magistrates.

The Supreme Court has stated that the 24-hour period stipulated under Article 22(2) will begin from the moment personal liberty is curtailed and the person is taken into custody, not from the time their formal arrest is recorded. The police cannot extend this period by delaying formal arrest under the guise of search, seizure, or interrogation. Police can no longer keep a person for prolonged interrogation without presenting them in court after detention, and no reason for exceeding the 24-hour limit will be considered valid.

The bench of Justice Bhuyan and Atul S. Chandurkar stated that considering the 24-hour period to start only from the time of formal arrest is against the provisions of Article 22(2) of the Constitution and Section 56 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). According to the Supreme Court, the 24-hour period to produce a person before a magistrate now begins at the time of detention and not at the time of formal arrest, and any attempt to create an artificial distinction between detention and arrest is constitutionally unacceptable.

The court has clarified that interrogation or any other questions cannot be kept outside the purview of this, and everything is subsumed within the 24 hours. Article 22(2) of the Constitution of India provides a detailed description of legal provisions related to detention and arrest. If the police violate this provision, the court has the power to take legal action, which may include departmental action against the police and in many cases fines on the police or the government.

According to Section 127(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a guilty police officer can face imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of 5,000. According to Section 127(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, if a person is illegally detained for 3 days or more, the court can sentence the guilty police officer to imprisonment of up to 3 years and impose a fine of 11,000. In a recent judgment, the Uttar Pradesh High Court stated that if a person is illegally detained even for a single day, the police will be fined 35,000. This year, in cases related to detention, UP Police has been fined 2.7 million.