Personal liberty important aspect of constitutional mandate: SC

Merely because an arrest can be made as it is lawful does not mandate that it must be made the Supreme Court has said while observing that personal liberty is an important aspect of constitutional mandateThe apex court said if arrest is made routine it could cause incalculable harm to the reputation and selfesteem of a personA bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy said if the investigating officer of a case does not believe that the accused will abscond or disobey the summons he or she is not required to be produced before the court in custodyWe may note that personal liberty is an important aspect of our constitutional mandate The occasion to arrest an accused during investigation arises when custodial investigation becomes necessary or it is a heinous crime or where there is a possibility of influencing the witnesses or accused may abscond the bench said in its order passed earlier this weekThe top court passed the order while hearing a plea against the Allahabad High Court verdict which had dismissed an application seeking anticipatory bail in a case in which FIR was registered seven years agoThe bench noted that contrary to the observations made in the apex court verdict of 1994 on how a police officer has to deal with a scenario of arrest the trial courts are stated to be insisting on arrest as a prerequisite formality to take charge sheet on record in view of provisions of section 170 of the Code of Criminal Procedure CrPCSection 170 of the CrPC deals with cases to be sent to magistrate when evidence is sufficientAlso Read Speculations reports in media on judges appointment process very unfortunate CJI NV RamanaThe top court said the word custody appearing in section 170 of the CrPC does not contemplate either police or judicial custody but it merely connotes the presentation of accused by the investigating officer before the court while filing chargesheetIt noted that section 170 of the CrPC does not impose an obligation on the officerincharge to arrest the accused at the time of filing of charge sheetMerely because an arrest can be made because it is lawful does not mandate that arrest must be made the bench said adding If arrest is made routine it can cause incalculable harm to the reputation and selfesteem of a personWhile setting aside the high court order the bench noted that the petitioner had already joined the investigation before approaching the apex court and charge sheet was ready to be filedIf the investigating officer has no reason to believe that the accused will abscond or disobey summons and has in fact throughout cooperated with the investigation we fail to appreciate why there should be a compulsion on the officer to arrest the accused it saidIt referred to judgements delivered by high courts on the issue which said that criminal courts cannot refuse to accept a charge sheet simply because accused has not been arrested and produced before itWe are in agreement with the aforesaid view of the high courts and would like to give our imprimatur to the said judicial view it said adding We have in fact come across cases where the accused has cooperated with the investigation throughout and yet on the charge sheet being filed nonbailable warrants have been issued for his production premised on the requirement that there is an obligation to arrest the accused and produce him before the courtIt noted that a distinction must be made between the existence of the power to arrest and the justification for exercising itReferring to the case before it the bench said when the petitioner has joined the investigation which is complete and he has been roped in after seven years of lodging of FIR there is no reason why at this stage he must be arrested before the charge sheet is taken on recordThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever