MANGAL HEMRUM Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) "Give me liberty or give me death," thundered Patrick Henry, more than two hundred years ago, in the Virginia Convention. This eternal aspiration of the soul was enshrined by the Founding Fathers in Article 21 of our Constitution in the following words :

(2.) SECTION 56 of the Code obligates a police officer making an arrest without warrant to take or send the person arrested before a magistrate having jurisdiction in the case or before the Officer -in -charge of the police station without unnecessary delay subject to the provisions as to bail. Section 57 provides that the maximum period for which a person arrested without warrant shall be detained in police custody is 24 hours exclusive of the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the magistrate's court unless there is special order of the Magistrate under Section 167. Then comes Section 167. It provides that the magistrate to whom the accused has been forwarded by the police may, from time to time, authorise detention of the accused for a term not exceeding 15 days in the whole and if he has no jurisdiction to hold the trial or commit for trial and considers further detention unnecessary, he may pass an order that the accused be forwarded to the magistrate having such jurisdiction. If within a period of 15 days investigation is not completed and the magistrate is satisfied that adequate grounds exist for authorising further detention of the accused person otherwise than in the custody of the police, he may pass an order for further detention of the accused beyond 15 days; but he shall not authorise the detention of the accused person in custody for a total period exceeding (a) 90 days where the investigation relates to an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or for a term not less than 10 years and (b) 60 days where investigation relates to any other offence.

(3.) SECTION 173(1) of Criminal Procedure Code 1898 (hereinafter referred to as the 'old Code') declared :