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Rights of an arrested person
What is an Arrest?
An arrest occurs when police officers take a suspect into custody against person’s will. An arrest is complete as soon as the suspect is no longer free to walk away from the arresting police officer, a moment that often comes well before the suspect actually arrives at a jail. In sum, the arrestee must not be free to leave.
The Indian Constitution granted many rights to the person who is in under arrest. The basic assumption behind these rights is that the government has enormous resources available to it for the prosecution of individuals, and individuals, therefore, are entitled to some protection from misuse of those powers by the government. Certain rights are given below which a person must know during the time of arrest:
Rights of Arrested Person:
1 Right To Silence
The ‘right to silence’ is a principle of common law and it means that normally courts or tribunals of fact should not be invited or encouraged to conclude, by parties or prosecutors, that a suspect or an accused is guilty merely because he has refused to respond to questions put to him by the police or by the Court. The Justice Malimath Committee writes about the origin of the right to silence that “it was essentially the right to refuse to answer and incriminate oneself in the absence of a proper charge. Not initially, the right to refuse to reply to a proper charge. The constitution of India guarantees every person right against self-incrimination under Article 20 (3) “No person accused of any offense shall be compelled to be a witness against himself”.
2 Information Regarding the Right to Be Released On Bail
Section 50(2) Cr.P.C. provides that “where a police officer arrests without warrant any person other than a person accused of a non- bailable offence, he shall inform the person arrested that he is entitled to be released in bail that he may arrange for sureties on his.”
3 Right To Be Taken Before A Magistrate Without Delay
Whether the arrest is made without warrant by a police officer, or whether the arrest is made under a warrant by any person, the person making the arrest must bring the arrested person before a judicial officer without unnecessary delay. It is also provided that the arrested person should not be confined in any place other than a police station before he is taken to the magistrate. These matters have been provided in Cr.P.C. under section 56 and 76.
4 Right of Not Being Detained For More Than 24 Hours Without Judicial Scrutiny
Person arrested not to be detained more than twenty-four hours. No police officer shall detain in custody a person arrested without warrant for a longer period than under all the circumstances of the case is reasonable, and such period shall not, in the absence of a special order of a Magistrate under section 167, exceed twenty-four hours exclusive of the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the Magistrate’s Court.
5 Right Of The Accused To Produce An Evidence
The accused even has right to produce witness in his defence in case of police report or private defence. After the Examination and cross examination of all prosecution witness which means after the completion of the prosecution case the accused shall be called upon to enter upon his defence and any written statement put in shall be filled with the record.
6 Right To Be Examined By A Medical Practitioner
Section 54 now renumbered as Section 54(1) provides: When a person who is arrested, whether on a charge or otherwise, alleges, at the time when he is produced before a Magistrate or at any time during the period of his detention in custody that the examination of his body will afford evidence which will disprove the commission by him of any offence or which will establish the commission by any other person of any offence against his body.
7 Rights Of Free Legal Aid
A constitutional obligation (implicit in Article 21) to provide free legal aid to an indigent accused person as is implicit in Article 21 of the Constitution . This right does not come into picture only at the time of trial but exists at the time when the accused is produced the first time before the magistrate, as also when remanded from time to time.
8 Right To Consult A Legal Practitioner
Every person who is arrested has a right to consult a legal practitioner of his own choice. This has been accepted as a fundamental right in Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India, which cannot be denied in any case. Section 50(3) of the Code also lays down that the person against whom proceedings are initiated has a right to be defended by a pleader of his choice.
9 Rights at Trial
- Right To A Fair Trial - The Constitution under Article 14 guarantees the right to equality before the law. The Code of Criminal Procedure also provides that for a trial to be fair, it must be an open court trial. This provision is designed to ensure that convictions are not obtained in secret. In some exceptional cases the trial may be held in camera.
- Right To A Speedy Trial by the Constitution of India - Though this right has not been specifically mentioned in the Constitution, however, the SC in the Hussainara Khatoon case has made it mandatory that the investigation in the trial must be conducted “as expeditiously as possible.”In cases, wherein the maximum punishment that can be imposed is 2 years, once the accused is arrested, the investigation for the trial has to be completed within the period of six months or stopped on receiving an order from the Magistrate, unless the Magistrate receives and accepts, with his reasons in writing, that there is cause to extend the investigation.
