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The Supreme Court laid down the law on arrest, detention and Article 22 (2), which grants a fundamental right that protects individuals from unlawful or prolonged police custody.
Supreme Court of India (Photo: PTI)
The Supreme Court on Thursday laid down the law on arrest, detention and Article 22 (2), which grants a fundamental right that protects individuals from unlawful or prolonged police custody.
A Bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S Chandurkar ruled that the 24-hour clock for producing an arrested person before a magistrate for remand begins from actual detention, not formal arrest, reported Bar and Bench.
The court also noted that if a person is kept in detention beyond 24 hours without production before magistrate, the person will have to be released from the custody immediately.
However, it also said that the necessary travel time to the magistrate’s court can be excluded from the 24-hour rule.
The Court was hearing where a person accused in a drug smuggling case was detained on the afternoon of September 29, 2025, but was shown as formally arrested only on September 30, 2025.
The accused man argued that this was done by the investigating agency to evade the 24-hour deadline prescribed under the Article 22(2) of the Constitution. The investigation agency, however, argued that the 24-hour deadline only began from September 30, the time when the arrest was formally recorded, according to Bar and Bench.
Describing such an approach as illegal, the Court said that the 24-hour clock begins to run the moment a person is placed under detention, regardless of whether a formal arrest is recorded only later.
“Clause (2) of Article 22 does not sanction creation of a zone where the liberty of an individual is curtailed for investigative purposes but not formally shown as arrested. Creation or contemplation of such a buffer zone is unconstitutional,” said the Bench.
The Court also ruled that no artificial distinction can be made between detention and a formal arrest, stating that such an attempt should be avoided.
“Any attempt to draw an artificial distinction between arrest and detention would dilute or negate the fundamental protection guaranteed by the Constitution. Such an endeavour should be avoided. We must adopt that interpretation which enhances and furthers the constitutional objective,” it said.
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November 05, 2026, 11:56 IST
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