MUHAMMAD SULEMAN Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The questions referred to the Fall Bench are: I. Whether upon a true construction of the Calcutta Police Act (_Ben. Act IV of 1866) a Deputy Commissioner of Police, by virtue of his powers as a Justice of the Peace or otherwise, can lawfully order the detention in Police custody of a person arrested without warrant, for any longer time than is necessary to enable such person to be brought before a Presidency Magistrate? II. Whether a Deputy Commissioner of Police can lawfully order that the detention of any such person as aforesaid at a Police Station or in Police custody shall continue until the Police investigation shall have been (a) further advanced, or (b) completed, notwithstanding that the time within which such person might have been brought before a Presidency Magistrate has elapsed?

(2.) The powers of the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of Police as a Justice of the Peace are defined in Section 7 of the Act, which runs as follows: The Commissioner of Police shall be appointed a Justice of the Peace, but unless he is vested with the jurisdiction of a Magistrate of Police, he shall act as a Justice only so far as may be necessary for the preservation of the peace, the prevention of crimes, and the detection, apprehension and detention of offenders in order to their being brought before a Magistrate of Police, and so far as may be necessary for the performance of the duties assigned^ to the Commissioner by this Act. The Deputies to the Commissioner of Police may be appointed Justices of the Peace, and, if so appointed, shall act in that capacity subject to the above restriction.

(3.) The power of detention of offenders is only "in order to their being brought before a Magistrate of Police," and the learned Advocate-General stated that he did not contend that the Deputy Commissioner as a Justice of the Peace has any power of detention except for that limited purpose. So the only question we have to consider is whether a Deputy Commissioner of Police as such has the power of detention for the purposes mentioned in the Reference to the Full Bench.