NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday held that disciplinary proceedings should be initiated against a police officer who arrested a person without furnishing the grounds of arrest in writing.
The bench comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Atul S Chandurkar observed that the arrest of an accused becomes illegal if the grounds of arrest have not been furnished in writing as per the mandate of Article 22(1) of the Constitution.
If the investigating agency wants to re-arrest a person whose initial arrest was declared illegal, it needs to first furnish the grounds of arrest and obtain the permission of the concerned Magistrate.
On the administrative side, the police officer who failed to furnish the grounds of arrest will have to seek an endorsement from a superior authority for the further custody of the accused.
The superior authority will have to assign the further investigation to another officer, and must direct departmental inquiry against the police officer. If on inquiry there are adverse findings against the police officer, it should entail departmental action with entry in the service book of the officer.
The Court has directed that a copy of this judgment should be sent to the Director Generals of Police in all States and Union Territories.
The Court made these observations while declaring the arrest of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-affiliated Mullanpur Dakha constituency in-charge Jaskaranjit Singh, in connection with allegations involving sexual assault of a minor, illegal as grounds of arrest were not furnished to him. Singh came before the Supreme Court after the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the local Court’s order, which declared his arrest illegal and ordered immediate release.
We are a multimedia news network. Website : www.7xnews.com Based in New Delhi (India)
Youtube : umakantlakheraspeaks@gmail.com
