DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

2020 – 2021

CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

PROJECT SYNOPSIS

TITLE – RIGHTS OF AN ARRESTED PERSON

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Dr. Prem Kumar Gautam Kushagra Tripathi

Assistant Professor (Law) Enrollment No. - 180101074
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)
Lucknow 3rd Year (Semester - V)

1
 LITERATURE SURVEY

Literature survey or literature review is the documentation of a comprehensive survey or

review of the published and unpublished work from secondary sources of data in the areas of
specific interest to the researcher. Thus the following literatures have been reviewed:

 R.V.Kelkar’s Criminal Procedure, Eastern Book Company

 Ratanlal and Dhirajlal, Code of Criminal Procedure, Lexis Nexis
 Rights of Arrested Person- Case Analysis, Mubashshir Sarshar, National Law
University, Delhi
 Rights of Arrested Person by Smarika Azad, Lex Articles

On the basis of these literatures the following review and preface has been brought up –

One of the basic tenets of our legal system is the benefit of the presumption of innocence of
the accused till he is found guilty at the end of a trial on legal evidence. In a democratic
country even the rights of the accused are sacrosanct, though accused of an offence, it doesn’t
mean that he does not have rights to secure his liberty, dignity and freedom. Accused also has
certain rights provided by our constitution and code of criminal procedure to protect him
from police atrocities and arbitrary approach of state.

Rights of the accused include the rights of the accused at the time of arrest, at the time of
search and seizure and during the process of trail. The accused in India are afforded certain
rights, the most basic of which are found in the Indian Constitution. The general theory
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. An accused has certain rights during the course of
any investigation; enquiry or trial of an offence with which he is charged and he should be
protected against arbitrary or illegal arrest. Police have a wide powers conferred on them to
arrest any person under Cognizable offence without going to magistrate, so Court should be
vigilant to see that theses powers are not abused for lightly used for personal benefits. No
arrest can be made on mere suspicion or information. Even private person cannot follow and
arrest a person on the statement of another person, however impeachable it is.
Though the police has been given various powers for facilitating the making of arrests, the
powers are subject to certain restraints. These restraints are primarily provided for the

2
protection of the interests of the person to be arrested, and also of the society at large. The
imposition of the restraints can be considered, to an extent, as the recognition of the rights of
the arrested person. There are, however, some other provisions which have rather more
expressly and directly created important rights in favor of the arrested person.

State and for that matter the police as its principal law enforcing agency have the undoubted
duty to bring offenders to book. Even so, the law and procedure adopted by the State for
achieving this laudable social objective have to conform to civilized standards. The procedure
adopted by the State must, therefore, be just, fair and reasonable.1

In their battle against crime and delinquency, State and its officers cannot on any account
forsake the decency of State behavior and have recourses to extra-legal methods for the sake
of detection of crimes and even criminals. In a democratic society even the rights of the
arrested and accused are sacrosanct for though accused of an offence he does not become a
non-person. As a matter of fact, the laws of India, which is constitutional, evidentiary and
procedural-have made elaborate provisions for safeguarding the rights of arrested with a view
to protect his dignity as a human being and giving him benefits of a just, fair and impartial
trial2.

The Code of Criminal Procedure is mainly procedural, yet it deals with three distinct but
closely related subjects, the Constitution and power of courts, the conduct of criminal
proceedings and the prevention of crimes by interference beforehand. However, we are
concerned with those provisions of the Code which entitle an accused of certain rights during
the course of any investigation, enquiry or trial of an offence with which he is charged.

However, it has to be taken note of that the crimes have to be prevented and criminals
punished to maintain the even tenor of life in the community. The basic object of Criminal
law is to suppress criminal enterprise. Society must be protected from transgression of law.
To achieve this end, there must be correspondence between the crime committed, and the
punishment imposed. Undoubtedly, the society must be the beneficiary or the larger
beneficiary3. In a catena of cases, the need for imposing penal sanctions in adequate measure
was highlighted. Justice to the victim and the community must be assured by the criminal

1
Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, AIR 1978 SC 597.
2
R. Deb, RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED UNDER THE LAW.
3
Thiruvananthapuram v. State of Kerela, 1993 CrLJ 3242.

3
justice system. Public interest must be served while the human dignity of the arrested must be
maintained and the rigor of imprisonment is ameliorated.
“Arrest” means:
“A seizure or forcible restraint; an exercise of the power to deprive a person of his or her
liberty; the taking or keeping of a person in custody by legal authority, especially, in response
to a criminal charge.”4 
The purpose of an arrest is to bring the arrestee before a court or otherwise secure the
administration of the law. An arrest serves the function of notifying the community that an
individual has been accused of a crime and also may admonish and deter the arrested
individual from committing other crimes. Arrests can be made on both criminal charges and
civil charges, although civil arrest is a drastic measure that is not looked upon with favor by
the courts. The federal Constitution imposes limits on both civil and criminal arrests.
In the leading case of Kishore Singh Ravinder Dev v. State of Rajasthan 5, it was said that
the laws of India i.e. Constitutional, Evidentiary and procedural have made elaborate
provisions for safeguarding the rights of accused with the view to protect his (accused)
dignity as a human being and giving him benefits of a just, fair and impartial trail. However
in another leading case of Meneka Gandhi v. Union of India it was interpreted that the
procedure adopted by the state must, therefore, be just, fair and reasonable.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
4
Legal Dictionary by Farlex.
5
AIR 1981 SC 625.

4
The aim and objective of the project is to present an overview of various aspects and legal principles
of ‘Rights of an arrested person’ through case laws, judicial pronouncements, established legal
principles, constitutional provisions, journals and articles.

HYPOTHESIS

The research of the project focusses on the hypothesis that the person who is arrested by
police has certain constitutional and statutory rights available with him in order to ensure that
state does not act arbitrarily and ambiguously.

RSEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research methodology used in the making of this project will be doctrinal research
methodology. This project work is descriptive analytical in approach and has been done taking
the help of secondary data i.e. websites, articles, journals, books, etc. To construct this project,
the help of dictionaries, websites as well as foreign journals and books has been taken. The
points as discussed in this project include the study of different sources on the topic as well as
the points guided by the faculty. Footnotes have also been provided for acknowledging the
sources as and where needed.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What does the term ‘Arrest’ in criminal law means and signifies?
2. What are the rights and legal remedies available with an arrested person?
3. What are the Constitutional rights of an arrested person?
4. What are the rights guaranteed to an arrested person by The Code of Criminal
Procedure?
5. What are the relevant judicial pronouncements and case laws enlightening the rights
of an arrested person?

TENTATIVE CONTENT

5
 LIST OF CASES REFERRED
 INTRODUCTION
 RIGHTS UNDER THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION
 RIGHTS UNDER THE CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
 JUDICIAL PRONOUNCEMENTS & CASE LAWS
 CONCLUSION
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

REFERENCES

 R.V.Kelkar’s Criminal Procedure, Eastern Book Company

 Ratanlal and Dhirajlal, Code of Criminal Procedure, Lexis Nexis
 Rights of Arrested Person- Case Analysis, Mubashshir Sarshar, National Law
University, Delhi
 Rights of Arrested Person by Smarika Azad, Lex Articles
 http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/
 http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/
 http://www.hrcr.org/
 http://blog.ipleaders.in/
 http://birbhumpolice.org/
 http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/
 http://www.scdecision.in/
 http://www.lawjournals.org/download/441/5-2-33-293.pdf
 https://kanwarn.wordpress.com/
 http://www.livelaw.in/
 http://indialegalonline.com/
 http://www.onlinelegalopinion.com/