Police Arrest Procedure & Your Rights

In case of a Police Arrest

Every Indian citizen must know the following GUIDELINES  LAID DOWN BY THE HON'BLE SUPREME COURT IN .

D K BASU CASE

The Hon'ble Supreme Court, in "D.K. Basu Vs State of West Bengal", has laid down 

specific guidelines required to be followed while making an arrests,

# The police personnel carrying out the arrest and handling the interrogation of the arrestee should bear accurate, visible and clear identification and name tags with their designations. 

# The particular of all such personnel who handle interrogation of the arrestee must be recorded in a register.

# That the police officer carrying out the arrest shall prepare a 'memo' of arrest at the time of arrest, 

and 

such memo shall be attested by at least one 'witness', who may be 

either a member of the family of the arrestee

OR

a 'respectable person' of the locality from where the arrest is made. It shall also be counter signed by the arrestee and shall contain the time and date of arrest.

# The person arrested must be made aware of his right to have someone informed of his arrest or detention as soon as he is put under arrest or is detained, unless the attesting witness of the memo of arrest is himself such a friend or a relative of the arrestee.

# There are two types of offence. 

1) Cognizable [Serious offence]

2)Non-Cognizable [Not a serious offence]

In case of Cognizable offence, Police may arrest you 'without-warrant'.

In case of Non-Cognizable offence, police can not arrest you without a warrant (order) issued by the magistrate .

# No police officer shall detain in custody a person arrested 'without-warrant' for more than 24 hours. 

# A person arrested 'without-warrant' must be presented to nearby district magistrate within 24 hours of arrest.

# Every police officer or other person arresting any person 'without-warrant' shall forthwith communicate to him full particulars of the offence for which he is arrested or other grounds for such arrest 

# The person arrested must be made aware of his right to BAIL. 

# Where a police officer arrests 'without-warrant' any person other than a person accused of a non-bailable offence, he shall inform the person arrested that he is entitled to be released on bail and that he may arrange for sureties on his behalf

# The arrestee may be permitted to meet his lawyer during interrogation, though not throughout the interrogation.

# An entry must be made in the 'diary' also know as 'Station Diary' at the place of detention regarding the arrest of the person, which shall also disclose the name of the next friend of the person who has

been informed of the arrest and the names and particulars of the police officials in whose custody the arrestee is. 

The same information should also be registered to Police control room within 12 hours of effecting arrest.

# The arrestee should, where he so request, be also examines at the time of his arrest and major and minor injuries, if any present on his/her body, must be recorded at that 

time. The Memo must be signed both by the arrestee and the police officer effecting the arrest and its copy should be provided to the arrestee.

# The arrestee should be subjected to medical examination by the trained doctor every 48 hours during his detention In custody by a doctor on the panel of approved doctor 

appointed by Director, Health Services of the concerned State or Union Territory.

# Where the next friend or relative of the arrestee lives outside the district or town the time, place of arrest and venue of custody of an arrestee must be notified by the police through 'the Legal Aids Organization' in the District and the police station of the area 

concerned telegraphically within a period of 8 to 12 hours after the arrest.

# Copies of all the documents including the memo of arrest, referred to above, should be sent to the Magistrate for his record.

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Failing to comply above guidelines will lead to departmenal enquiry + punished for contempt of court to be filled before high Court.

Read 'Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (CRPC)' for further understanding.

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Disclaimer:

These guides are not legal advice, nor a substitute for a lawyer. These articles are provided freely as general guides for legal awareness in the Society. Laws are updated/amended regularly by concerned authorities. Please check for the latest & updated laws with your legal advisor.