STANDING
ORDER
NO.
330/2008
GUIDELINES FOR ARREST
The Honble Supreme Court of India in the matter of
Joginder Kumar Vs State of UP ( Crl. WP No. 9 of 1994 ) made the
following observations:1.
No arrest can be made because it is lawful for the Police Officer to
do so. The existence of the power to arrest is one thing. The
justification for the exercise of it is quite another. The Police
Officer must be able to justify the arrest apart from his power to
do so.
2.
No arrest can be made in a routine manner on a mere
allegation of commission of an offence made against a person
no arrest should be made without a reasonable satisfaction
reached after some investigation as to the genuineness and bona
fides of a complaint and a reasonable belief both as to the
persons complicity and even so as to the need to effect arrest.
3.
A person is not liable to arrest merely on the suspicion of
complicity in an offence.
There must be some reasonable
justification in the opinion of the Officer effecting the arrest that
such arrest is necessary and justified.
The following requirements also prescribed in the judgement:-
1.
An arrested person being held in custody is entitled, if he so
requests to have one friend relative or other person who is known
to him or likely to take an interest in his welfare told as far as is
practicable that he has been arrested and where is being
detained.
2.
The Police Officer shall inform the arrested person when he is
brought to the police station of this right.
3.
An entry shall be required to be made in the Diary as to who was
informed of the arrest. These protections from power must be
held to flow from Articles 21 and 22 (1) and enforced strictly.
The Honble Supreme Court of
India in the case of D.K.
Basu Vs. State of West Bengal issued the following requirements to
be followed in all cases of arrest or detention:1.
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 particulars of all such police personnel
who handle interrogation of the arrestee must be recorded in a
register and the case diary.
2.
The police officer carrying out the arrest of the arrestee 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.
3.
A person who has been arrested or detained and is being
held in custody in a police
station or interrogation
centre or other lock-up, shall be entitled to have one
friend or relative or the person known to him or having
interest in his welfare being informed, as soon as practicable,
that he has been arrested and is being detained at the
particular place, unless the attesting witness of the memo of
arrest is himself such a friend or a relative of the arrestee.
4.
The time, place of arrest and venue of custody of an arrestee
must be notified by the police where the next friend or relative
of the arrestee lives outside of the district or town through the
Legal Aid Organization in the District and the police station of the
area concerned telephonically/ telegraphically within a period of 8
to 12 hours after the arrest.
5.
The person arrested must be made aware of this right to have
someone informed of his arrest or detention as soon as he is
put under arrest or is detained.
6.
An entry must be made in the 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.
7.
The arrestee should, where he
so requests, be
also
examined 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 Inspection Memo must be signed both by
the arrestee and the police affecting the arrest and its
copy provided to the arrestee.
8.
The arrestee should be subjected to medical examination by a
trained doctor after every 48 hours during his detention is
custody by a doctor on the panel
of approved doctors
appointed by Director, Health Services of the concerned
State or
Union Territory, Director, Health Services should
prepare such a panel for all Tehsils and Districts as well.
9.
Copies of all the documents including the memo of
arrest, referred to above, should be sent to the Illaqa
Magistrate for his record.
10
The arrestee may be permitted to meet his lawyer during
interrogation, though not through out the interrogation.
11.
A Police control room should be provided at all district and
state headquarters where information regarding the arrest and
the place of custody of the arrestee shall be communicated
by the officer causing the arrest, within 12 hours of effecting
the arrest and at the police control room it should be
displayed on a conspicuous notice board.
The Supreme Court of India also directed that failure
to comply with the said requirements shall apart from rendering the
concerned official liable for departmental action, also render him
liable to be punished for contempt of Court and the proceedings
for contempt of Court may be instituted in any High Court of the
country, having territorial jurisdiction over the matter.
These
instructions
are to be notified at every police station at a
conspicuous place.
The Delhi High Court in Crl. M (M) 3875/2003 in Court
On
Its Own Motion Vs CBI made the following observations/
directions regarding arrests under section 498A/406 IPC. The Court
observed that
Sections 498A/406 IPV which are much abused
provisions and exploited by the police and the victims to the level of
absurdity.every relative of the husband, close or distant, old
or minor is arrested by the policeunless the allegations
are very serious nature and highest magnitude arrest should
always be avoided.
In a recent judgement in criminal appeal Nos. 696/2004,
748/2004, 787/2004 and 749/2004 pronounced on
1.11.2007, the
Delhi High Court observed that . In all these cases in the name
of investigation, except recording statement of complainant and her few
relatives nothing is done by police. The police does not verify any
circumstantial evidence nor collect any other evidence about the claims
made by the complainant.
No evidence about giving of dowry or
resources of the complainants family claiming spending of huge amounts
is collected by the police. This all is resulting into gross misuse of the
provisions of law..
The Honble Mr. Justice Kailash Gambhir, High Court of
Delhi, in Bail Application No.1627/2008 titled Chander Bhan &
Anr. Vs State passed, inter-alia, the following guide lines to be
strictly followed by the police authorities:(A)
(i)
(ii)
No case under Section 498-A/406 IPC should be
Registered without the prior approval of DCP/Addl.
DCP.
Arrest of main accused should be made only after
thorough investigation has been conducted and
with
(iii)
prior
approval of the ACP/DCP.
Arrest of the collateral accused such as
fatherin -law , mother-in-law,
brotherin -law or
sister-in-law etc. should only be made after prior
approval of DCP on file.
(B)
Police should also depute a well trained and a
well behaved staff in all the crime against women
cells especially the lady officers, all well equipped
with the abilities of perseverance, Persuasion, patience
and
forbearance.
(C)
FIR in such cases
routine manner.
(D)
The endeavour of the police
should be to scrutinize
complaints
very
carefully
and
then
register
FIR.
(E)
The FIR should be
registered only against those
persons against
whom
there
are
strong
allegations
of
causing any kind of
physical
or
mental cruelty as well as breach of trust.
(F)
All
possible
efforts should
be made,
before
recommending registration of
any FIR,
for
reconciliation
and in case it is found that there is
no possibility
of settlement,
then necessary
steps
in the first instance be taken to ensure return of
stridhan and dowry articles etc. by
the accused
party to the complainant.
should
not
be registered in
The earlier Standing Order issued vide No. 80033132/C&T (AC-5)/ PHQ dated 21 /12 /07 is hereby withdrawn.
(Yudhbir Singh Dadwal)
Commissioner of Police,
Delhi
Order Book No. 02/Record Branch (PHQ)
Dated:08/10/2008
No.
301-600 /HAR (PHQ)/AC-I
Dated
the 08/10/2008
Copy forwarded for information and necessary action to the:1.
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Delhi.
All Special Commissioners of Police, Delhi.
Managing Director, Delhi Police Housing Corporation,
All Joint Commissioners of Police, Delhi.
All Additional Commissioners of Police, Delhi.
Principal/PTC, Jharoda Kalan, Delhi
All Deputy Commissioners of Police of Districts/ Units,
including FRRO, Delhi/ New Delhi.
SO to Commissioners of Police, LA to Commissioners
of Police, and F.A. to C.P., Delhi.
All ACsP in PHQ.
ACP/IT Centre with the direction to upload the
Standing order in Intra DP net.
All ACsP Sub Division.
P.A. to C.P., Delhi.
All SHOs/Delhi Police through their respective DCsP with
the direction to place the Standing Order in register No.3
Part-1 of the Police Stations.
All Inspectors/ PHQ, including Reader to CP, Delhi
Librarian/ PHQ.
Record Branch/PHQ with 10 spare copies.
