New Delhi: The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that no citizen should be arrested in the country without informing the reason, emphasising that such a disclosure is a fundamental right, The Telegraph reported.
The court of Justices Abhay S Oka and N Kotiswar Singh said that violation of this right would automatically entitle the accused to bail even if the relevant statute prescribe stringent bail conditions.
It was ruled that not informing the accused of the grounds on which they were arrested vitiates the arrest. Once the arrest is held to be vitiated, the person arrested could not be kept in the custody “even for a second”, the court ruled.
Issuing several directives and guidelines for the police and all courts of India, the court said that the Article 21right to Life and personal liberty), Article 22 (protection from arbitrary arrest and detention), Section 50 of the CrPC, and Section 48 of the BNSS mandate that a person cannot be arrested without being told the grounds.
It also referred to the 1952 case of Harikisan vs the State of Maharashtra to establish the right.
The judgement observed, “If the grounds of arrest are not informed as soon as may be after the arrest, it would amount to a violation of the fundamental right of the arrestee guaranteed under Article 22(1),” The Telegraph quoted.
The judgement also said that making arrests without informing the grounds amounts to deprivation of the accused’s liberty, and no person can be deprived of his liberty except in accordance with the procedure established by law.
The court then directed the Haryana government to release one Vihaan Kumar, who was accused of cheating and other offences, holding that his arrest was unconstitutional as he wasn’t informed about the grounds of his arrest.