THE PRIEST

Supreme Court on 2nd July ,2014 in Arnesh kumar vs State of Bihar(CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1277 OF 2014) gave following judgement regarding arrest in cases having punishment upto 7 years . In order to ensure that police officers do not arrest accused unnecessarily and Magistrate do not authorise detention casually and mechanically. In order to ensure court gave the following directions: (1) All the State Governments to instruct its police officers not to automatically arrest when a case under Section 498-A of the IPC is registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameters laid down above flowing from Section 41, Cr.PC; (2) All police officers be provided with a check list containing specified sub-clauses under Section 41(1)(b)(ii);  (3) The police officer shall forward the check list duly filed and furnish the reasons and materials which necessitated the arrest, while forwarding/producing the accused before the Magistrate for further detention;...

Supreme court in Delhi Judicial Service Association, Tis Hazari Court, Delhi v. State of Gujarat, (1991) 4 SCC 406: AIR 1991 SC 2176 laid down following guidelines to be followed before arresting judicial officers : (A) If a judicial officer is to be arrested for some offence, it should be done under intimation to the District Judge or the High Court as the case may be. (B) If facts and circumstances necessitate the immediate arrest of a judicial officer of the subordinate judiciary, a technical or formal arrest may be effected. (C) The facts of such arrest should be immediately communicated to the District and Sessions Judge of the concerned District and the Chief Justice of the High Court. (D) The Judicial Officer so arrested shall not be taken to a police station, without the prior order or directions of the District & Sessions Judge of the concerned District, if available. (E) Immediate fa...

Supreme Court in Smt Selvi & Ors vs State of Karnataka (Criminal Appeal No. 1267 of 2004) on 5th May 2010 held that:  No individual should be forcibly subjected to any of the techniques in question, whether in the context of investigation in criminal cases or otherwise. Doing so would amount to an unwarranted intrusion into personal liberty. However, the court allowed voluntary administration of the impugned techniques in the context of criminal justice, provided that certain safeguards are in place. Even when the subject has given consent to undergo any of these tests, the test results by themselves cannot be admitted as evidence because the subject does not exercise conscious control over the responses during the administration of the test. However, any information or material that is subsequently discovered with the help of voluntary administered test results can be admitted, in accordance with Section 27 of the Evidence Act, 1872. The National Human Rights Commission ...

While deciding Criminal Appeal number 1081,1082 and 1083 of 2015 Arising out of S.L.P. (Crl.) No. 3611,3612,3613 of 2015 respectively the Supreme Court on 21st August in it's judgement answered   "A common question of law involved in these three appeals as to whether no remand in police custody can be given to the investigating agency in respect of the absconding accused who is arrested only after filing of the charge sheet." As per the judgement  "  If sufficient evidence has been obtained to raise a suspicion that the accused may have committed an offence, and it appears likely that further evidence may be obtained by a remand, this is a reasonable cause for a remand.” The principle of law laid down by the three judge bench of the Supreme Court in State v. Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar (supra) that police remand can be sought under Section 167(2) CrPC in respect of an accused arrested at the stage of furt...

On 23rd November 2014 Supreme in its judgement in the, CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.1255 OF 1999, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) & Anr. vs State of Maharashtra & Ors. gave a detail guidelines which needed to be followed before and after police encounter takes place. The guidelines issued to be followed in the matters of investigating police encounters in the cases of death as the standard procedure for thorough, effective and independent investigation are as follows :  Whenever the police is in receipt of any intelligence or tip-off regarding criminal movements or a  activities pertaining to the commission of grave criminal offence, it shall be reduced into writing in  some form (preferably into case diary) or in some electronic form. Such recording need not reveal  details of the suspect or the location to which the party is headed. If such intelligence or tip-off is  received by a higher authority, the same may be noted in some form without ...

Legal aid is free legal assistance to the poor and weaker sections of the society with the object to enable them to exercise the rights given to them by law. Justice P.N.Bhagwati has rightly said that "the poor and the illiterate should be able to approach the Courts and their ignorance and poverty should not be an impediment in the way of their obtaining Justice from the Courts." The Constitution of India gives much emphasis on the constitutionalism and rule of law. In India the rule of law is regarded as a part of the basic structure of the Constitution and also of natural justice. The rule of natural justice says that individuals should not penalized by decisions affecting their rights or legitimate expectations unless they have been given prior notice of the cases against them, a fair opportunity to answer them, and the opportunity to present their own cases. The preamble of the Constitution secures to its citizen, social, economic and political justice. Article 1...

There are lots of prevailing misconceptions among common men as well among policemen regarding the procedure to be followed while dealing with women. Women gets extra rights and safeguard along with rights available to all human being .In this article I will try to clarify the procedure to be followed in various types of cases where police have to deal with women. Let us discuss case by case the additional rights available for women .      Police while dealing with women victim/complainant. Section 154 of CrPC provides that in case of acid attack(326A IPC) , Sexual Harassment (354, 354A, 354B, 354C, 354D IPC) ,Rape (376, 376A,376B,376C,376D, 376E IPC) and Insulting the modesty of women(Section 509 IPC) if the information is given by women the Information shall be recorded by a woman police officer or any woman officer.  In case of above if victim is temporarily or permanently mentally or physically disabled, then such information shall be recorde...

The Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985 popularly known as the anti-defection law came into force w.e.f. 1 March 1985. It amended articles 101, 102, 190 and 191 of the Constitution regarding vacation of seats and disqualification from membership of Parliament and the State Legislatures and added a new schedule i.e. the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution setting out certain provisions as to disqualification on ground of defection. Articles 102 (2) and 191 (2) read as follows “(2) a person shall be disqualified for being a member of either House of Parliament if he is sodisqualified under the Tenth Schedule.” The main provisions of Tenth Schedule are as follow : The grounds on which disqualification can be incurred are as under: (i) Members belonging to political parties A member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified for being a member of House— (a) if he has voluntarily given up his membership of such political party; or (b) if he votes or ab...

  India is a sovereign, socialist, secular democratic republic. Democracy is one of the inalienable basic features of the Constitution of India and forms part of its basic structure (Kesavanand Bharati v State of Kerala and Others AIR 1973 SC 1461). The concept of democracy, as visualized by the Constitution, pre-supposes the representation of the people in Parliament and State Legislatures by the method of election (N P Punnuswami v Returning Officer Namakkal AIR 1952 SC 64). For democracy to survive rule of law must prevail and it is necessary that the best available men should be chosen as people’s representatives for proper governance of the country (Gadakh Yashwantrao Kankararao v Balasaheb Vikhepatil AIR 1994 SC 678). And for the best available men to be chosen as people’s representatives, elections must be free and fair and conducted in an atmosphere where the electors are able to exercise their franchise according to their own free will. Thus, free and fair elections fo...