CrPC RD.docx

AN ANALYSIS OF THE AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW RELATING TO ARREST

A Rough Draft submitted in partial fulfilment of the course CRIMINAL LAW-II, 4th SEMESTER during the Academic Year 2017-2018

SUBMITTED BY: Shreya Sinha Roll No. - 1648 B.B.A LL.B

SUBMITTED TO: Dr. PETER F. LADIS FACULTY OF CRIMINAL LAW-II

MARCH, 2018 CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, NAYAYA NAGAR, MEETHAPUR, PATNA-800001 INTRODUCTION

The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2005, to quote the Home Minister, would make the law more humane, more scientific and more effective. However, after the Act got the Presidential assent, the implementation of these amendments have been deferred indefinitely  by the Government amidst nationwide protests by lawyers and objections by the Bar Council of India against some of the provisions, which according to them, adversely affects the interests of the accused. The lawyers have protested against provisions like the ones that provide for  prompt arrest of an accused after rejection of his anticipatory bail, confiscation of the property of an accused who has repeatedly evaded court process and the powers of a Magistrate to recommend to the prosecution to file an appeal in a criminal case even if the offence is not of a serious nature, even though in our country, jumping bails, evading trial by not appearing  before the court and ineffectual prosecution is the norm! By way of amendments made to the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.) in 2009 and 2010, which came into force with effect from 1 November 2010, the powers of the police officers to arrest a person accused of an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term which may be less than seven years or which may extend to seven years, have been drastically curtailed. It appears that either the police officers are not yet not aware of these curtailed powers or they are deliberately or negligently not complying with the curtailment of the power to arrest in such cases. It is the duty of the police leadership to educate the police officers at the lower levels about the drastically reduced powers of arrest in such offences where the maximum imprisonment can be up to seven years; otherwise an abuse of the powers of arrest can possibly land a police officer in trouble as it happened in a recent case wherein the Supreme Court imposed a fine of ₹ 10 lakh for an illegal arrest that was made in violation of the amended  powers of arrest. The amended provision also requires that in all such cases (i.e., where the imprisonment for the offence is up to 7 years) where the arrest of a person is not required as mentioned above, the police officer shall also record the reasons in writing for not making the arrest.

Further, as per the newly inserted Section 41-A in Cr.P.C. (which also came into force with effect from 1 November 2010), where the arrest of a person is not required under the above  provisions, the police officer shall issue a notice directing the person who is accused of such offence to appear before him or at such other place as may be specified in the notice. Where such a notice is issued to any such accused person, it shall be the duty of that person to comply with the terms of the notice. Where such person complies and continues to comply with such notice, he shall not be arrested in respect of the offence referred to in the notice unless, for reasons to be recorded, the police officer is of the opinion that he ought to be arrested. It is also  provided that where such person, at any time, fails to comply with the terms of such notice or is unwilling to identify himself, the police officer may, subject to such orders as may have been  passed by a competent Court in this behalf, arrest him for the offence mentioned in the notice.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The Aims and Objectives of this project are: 1. To study the laws relating to arrest. 2. To study the amendments in the laws relating to arrest. 3. To study the rights of arrested persons before and aft er the arrest.

TENTATIVE CHAPTERIZATION

1. Introduction 2. Initial Laws Relating to Arrest 3. Why the need for amendment? 4. Amendments Relating to the Laws of Arrest 5. Analysis of the amendments by various Case Laws 6. Opinions and Suggestions 7. Conclusion

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

For this study, primary research method was utilised. Various articles, e-articles, reports and  books from library were used extensively in framing all the data and figures in appropriate form, essential for this study. The method used in writing this research is primarily analytical.