DIVENDRA SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On Sept. 3, 1979 at about 4:30 p.m. an officer attached to Santnagar Police Station. Hyderabad, with the assistance of some officers of the Park Street Police Station arrested the petitioner Devendra Singh from his residence at 16/1, Lowdon Street, Calcutta-17. The arrest was made without any warrant. After his arrest the petitioner was taken to the Park Street Police Station and from there to Lalbazer Police Headquarters. On the following day he was produced in the Court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Calcutta and on the prayer of the petitioner the learned Magistrate by an order passed on that date, viz. Sept. 4, 1979 released him on bail with a direction to appear before the learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Hyderabad by Sept. 18, 1979 and to report compliance by Oct. 12, 1979. The petitioner again moved the learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Calcutta on Sept. 14, 1979 for extending the date of his appearance at Hyderabad by three weeks on the ground that he was ill. The learned Magistrate by an order of that date rejected the prayer. In this application the petitioner has impugned the validity of the two orders passed by the learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Calcutta on Sept. 4 and 14, 1979.

(2.) Mr. Balai Chandra Ray, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, has submitted that his client was neither shown any warrant by the arresting Police Officer nor communicated the reasons for the arrest, although he had asked for the same. As such the arrest was illegal being in violation of the mandatory provisions of Sec. 50(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter the Code), under which the petitioner had to be given forthwith the grounds for his arrest.

(3.) According to the learned Public Prosecutor the power to arrest without warrant has been given to a Police Officer by Sec. 41(1) of the Code, which does not lay down that the reasons for the arrest has to be simultaneously communicated to the arrested person; therefore the word forthwith' in Sec. 50(1) of the Code should be construed to mean as soon as possible after the arrest. In this connection Mr. Mitter has asked us to consider that the words 'as soon as may be' also occurs in sub-clauses (1) and (5) of Art. 22 of the Constitution.