Kamal Ghorui
SC tells cops to think before acting – good advice
Supreme Court has once again read police the arrest act. Ask, it said in as many words, why arrest before making the arrest: “The police officer shall ask himself the question as to whether an arrest is a necessity or not, before undertaking said exercise.” It should be obvious, right? Just because the law allows police powers of arrest in no way means random arrests can be made on vague pretexts such as for questioning. Police powers of arrest, SC said, are: “mere statutory discretion”, “not a matter of routine…but an exception”, “shall not be undertaken unless absolutely warranted”, “power of arrest…to be exercised rather sparingly.”
Do police not know this? They do. Do police procedure trainings not stay updated? Maybe. Do cops misinterpret their powers as laid down in law? Unlikely. Then why have unwarranted arrests, even if law allows for it, as a widely practised norm? The more probable answer is institutional culture. Police make unnecessary arrests because the culture across police forces has become to punish, making process the punishment, riding roughshod over both constitutional rights of those facing arrest and with zero sensibilities to how damaging an arrest can be.
The ruling builds on an earlier order from Nov 2025, when SC held, in a case where appellants argued they weren’t informed of grounds of arrest in writing, that regardless which law is in application, it is constitutional mandate to inform “arrestee of the grounds of arrest” in writing and in a language. SC made this mandatory in all offences under all statutes. The arrest would be rendered “illegal” if there was non-compliance, and the person would be set free. Now, SC is telling cops to first justify in their own mind if an arrest is at all necessitated. Are cops listening?
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