TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (2) TMI 176
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....70/370(A)/372/373/376/120B/34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ('IPC') and sections 3/4/5/6 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956 ('ITP Act') at P.S.: Kamla Market, Delhi. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 3. Briefly, the allegation against the petitioner is that he was the 'Manager' of an establishment which was inter alia engaged in the sexual abuse and exploitation of victims and was living-of the gains of such activity, based on which allegation the subject FIR came to be registered against the petitioner. 4. Subsequently, the Investigating Officer ('I.O.') moved an application seeking the petitioner's custody; and vide order dated 18.05.2024 passed by the learned Magistrate, the petitioner was remanded to police custody for 02 days. The petitioner was thereafter remanded to judicial custody for 14 days vide order dated 20.05.2024 passed by the learned Magistrate. 5. Pursuant to notice being issued on the present petition on 28.05.2024, the State has filed Status Report dated 08.06.2024 in the matter. PETITIONER'S SUBMISSIONS 6. Mr. Adit S. Pujari, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner, has premised his challenge to the impugned order on the following 03....
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....on the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Prabir Purkayastha vs. State (NCT of Delhi) (2024) 8 SCC 254. 9. In support of his submissions, Mr. Pujari has drawn attention to the following paras of Pranav Kuckreja (supra) : "9. The short question involved in the present case is whether the grounds for the petitioner's arrest were duly communicated in compliance with Section 50 of the Cr.P.C. and the Supreme Court's judgment in Pravir Purkayastha (supra). ***** "12. Section 50 of the Cr.P.C. provides as under; "50. Person arrested to be informed of grounds of arrest and of right to bail. (1) Every police officer or other person arresting any person without warrant shall forthwith communicate to him full particulars of the offence for which he is arrested or other grounds for such arrest. [Underscoring in extraction] (2) 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 on bail and that he may arrange for sureties on his behalf." "13. The bare perusal of it makes it clear that the law ma....
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....d individual expeditiously. Providing the grounds of arrest to the person being arrested is of utmost sanctity and significance. This information serves as the fundamental basis for the arrested individual to seek legal advice, challenge the remand, and apply for bail. "25. In the context of present case, it is pertinent to mention that Section 50 Cr. P.C. uses the word "forthwith". The dictionary meaning of the word "forthwith" as defined in the Shorter Oxford English dictionary on historical principles, fifth edition, volume - 01 A-M is (1) Along with, at the same time; and (2) Immediately, at one, without delay. "26. The term 'forthwith' in legal parlance also generally implies an action that must be taken without unreasonable delay. It suggests promptness and urgency. The expression 'forthwith' has also been defined in Black's Law Dictionary, 10th Edition as "forthwith, adv. (14c) 1. Immediately; without delay. 2. Directly; promptly; within a reasonable time under the circumstances; with all convenient dispatch". This implies that the "grounds for such arrest" have to be communicated at the earliest. Reading this otherwise may not justify the requirement of Se....
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....pondent agency as to why they chose to omit compliance of this essential requirement. To contend that arrestee had been "effectively"6 informed about the grounds of arrest, which would be enough for the arrestee to formulate their arguments during the remand, is a specious argument. ***** "40. A constitutional mandate must be understood and implemented in its right and rational perspective, and not cursorily and casually. Even if assuming, in favour of the prosecution, that the narrative in the remand application amounted to grounds of arrest , furnishing the said application just before the remand hearing would effectively negate and nullify the duty to inform meaningfully and at the earliest." 11. In this legal backdrop, it is the petitioner's argument that a perusal of the arrest memo would show that the arrest memo is completely silent about, and contains no reference to, the grounds of arrest. This submission is borne-out on a perusal of the arrest memo, which has been shown to the court from the police file. 12. It is further the argument of the petitioner, that a reading of Status Report dated 08.06.2024 would show that the petitioner, alongwith other....
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....preme Court has also cited the judgment titled as Pankaj Bansal Vs. Union of India and Others, 2023 SCC Online 1244, according to which the mode of conveying information of grounds of arrest must be meaningful. The purpose behind the same is to apprise the arrested person as to why he was arrested so as to enable the person to seek a legal counsel who can present his case before the court and oppose his remand. In the present case, the IO had orally informed the grounds of arrest at the time of his arrest. The accused had adequately ensured his legal representation since his counsel had opposed his remand by filing of appropriate application. Moreover, the written grounds of arrest were also communicated to the accused and his counsel at 4.40 pm i.e., within 24 hours of arrest. This remand order is being passed at 5.30 pm, after giving adequate opportunity to the counsel for accused to present his case. The allegations against the accused are serious in nature. He has been accused u/s 342/344/368/370/370A/372/373/ 376/120B/34 IPC and 3/4/5/6 ITP Act. As per the disclosure statement and grounds of PC cited by the IO, it is necessary to remand the accused for two days so tha....
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....tioner during the remand application hearing has been appended to the petition. Learned counsel submits, that such discrepancy vitiates the sanctity of the grounds of arrest. 18. Mr. Pujari also submits, that the grounds of arrest mentioned in the remand application do not specify the exact offences alleged against the petitioner, which is also a requirement of section 50 Cr.P.C. 19. In the circumstances, it is argued that the petitioner's arrest and remand are both illegal; and the petitioner deserves to be released from custody forthwith. STATE'S SUBMISSIONS 20. Arguing on behalf of the State, Mr. Utkarsh, learned APP appearing on behalf of the State has sought to draw a distinction between the terms detention and arrest, submitting that 'detention' of a person is not the same as 'arrest' since arrest means formally taking a person into custody. Learned APP submits, that in the present case, once the petitioner reached the police station at around 11:30 a.m. on 17.05.2024, he was questioned and remained within the police station in the sense of being bound-down or detained but he was not arrested till 6:30 p.m. 21. Learned APP submits, that the petitioner was arres....
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....text that in Ram Kishor Arora (supra) the Supreme Court has interpreted the phrase "as soon as may be" appearing in section 19 PMLA to mean "as early as possible without avoidable delay" or "within reasonably convenient" or "reasonably requisite" period of time. It is pointed-out that in Ram Kishor Arora (supra) the Supreme Court has further elaborated that since a person is to be produced before the court within 24 hours of his arrest, the reasonably convenient or reasonably requisite time to inform the arrestee of the grounds of arrest would be within 24 hours of arrest. 25. Furthermore, Mr. Utkarsh has sought to refute the contention raised on behalf of the petitioner as regards the discrepancy in the grounds of arrest supplied to the petitioner and those mentioned in the remand application, by submitting that there is no legal obligation that the grounds of arrest must be specifically set-out in a remand application. It is submitted that the law permits that the grounds of arrest maybe detailed in a remand application which is served upon an accused; however, there is no mandatory requirement that every remand application must contain the grounds of arrest. It is accordingly....
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....natural sense also "arrest" means the restraint on or deprivation of one's personal liberty. [The Law Lexicon-T.P. Mukherjee (1989) page 177-178.]" (emphasis supplied) 28. Mr. Pujari points-out that the question whether a person must be taken to have been 'arrested' from the moment his liberty is curtailed, whether or not he is formally under arrest, is also pending consideration before the Supreme Court in Directorate of Enforcement vs. Pranav Gupta and Anr. [Order dated 18.03.2024 passed in SLP (Crl.) Nos. 3214-3215/2024] ANALYSIS & CONCLUSIONS 29. The requirement of serving upon an arrestee the 'grounds of arrest' (or grounds for arrest as it is alternatively phrased) as distinct from citing the 'reasons for arrest' for seeking remand has gained much significance in light of the recent decisions of the Supreme Court. In its verdict in Prabir Purkayastha (supra), the Supreme Court has drawn a clear distinction between the 'grounds of arrest' and 'reasons for arrest', observing as follows: "48. It may be reiterated at the cost of repetition that there is a significant difference in the phrase "reasons for arrest" and "grounds of arrest". The "reasons....
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....the phrase "as soon as may be". The relevant portion of section 19 PMLA has been extracted below: 19. Power to arrest.-(1) If the Director, Deputy Director, Assistant Director or any other officer authorised in this behalf by the Central Government by general or special order, has on the basis of material in his possession, reason to believe (the reason for such belief to be recorded in writing) that any person has been guilty of an offence punishable under this Act, he may arrest such person and shall, as soon as may be, inform him of the grounds for such arrest. (emphasis supplied) 30.4 In its decision in Ram Kishor Arora (supra), the Supreme Court has dealt with phraseology of section 19 PMLA, and in that context, it has been held as under: "19. In view of the above, the interpretation of the expression "as soon as may be" assumes significance. In our opinion, the interpretation of the said expression should not detain us more in view of the Constitution Bench judgment in Abdul Jabar Butt v. State of J&K [Abdul Jabar Butt v. State of J&K, 1956 SCC OnLine SC 6 : AIR 1957 SC 281]. In the said case, the Constitution Bench while interpreting Section 8 o....
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.... was allowed to the authority to communicate the grounds to the detenu and was predicated by the expression "as soon as may be" was what was "reasonably convenient" or "reasonably requisite"." * * * * * "21. In view of the above, the expression "as soon as may be" contained in Section 19 PMLA is required to be construed as - "as early as possible without avoidable delay" or "within reasonably convenient" or "reasonably requisite" period of time. Since by way of safeguard a duty is cast upon the officer concerned to forward a copy of the order along with the material in his possession to the adjudicating authority immediately after the arrest of the person, and to take the person arrested to the court concerned within 24 hours of the arrest, in our opinion, the reasonably convenient or reasonably requisite time to inform the arrestee about the grounds of his arrest would be twenty-four hours of the arrest. "22. In Vijay Madanlal Choudhary [Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India, (2023) 12 SCC 1 : 2022 SCC OnLine SC 929], it has been categorically held that so long as the person has been informed about the grounds of his arrest, that is sufficient compl....
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....memo. 30.8 There is a reason why the above interpretation of the word "forthwith" is the only interpretation that is in consonance with the constitutional mandate that a person cannot be deprived of his liberty mechanically or needlessly. And the reason is that though a person may be detained for enquiry or interrogation, it is only when an I.O. forms an opinion that there are some justifiable grounds to arrest a person that he would place the person under arrest. Once the grounds for requiring a person's arrest have been formulated in the investigating officer's mind, there can possibly be no reason why those grounds cannot be reduced into writing and communicated to the person simultaneously at the time of arrest. 30.9 Therefore, in the opinion of this court, any other connotation of the word "forthwith" would not only dilute the plain meaning of that word but would also erode the fundamental right of a person not to be deprived of his liberty, without being expressly and formally informed as to why he was being arrested, so also to enable him to seek legal recourse against such arrest. 30.10 It must also be observed that in its decision in Pranav Kuckereja (supra) the C....