TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (5) TMI 2269
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.... with regard to a case which was registered by way of an Enforcement Case Information Report (hereinafter referred to as the "ECIR") No. ECIR/RPZO/11/2022. This matter was being contested by the petitioner alongwith the other co-accused and the ECIR therein was challenged. However on 17.01.2024, an F.I.R. which gave rise to Case Crime No. 4 of 2024 was lodged by the Anti Corruption Bureau, Chhattisgarh under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of I.P.C. read with section 7 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and therein the petitioner was arrested on 04.04.2024. When the petitioner was so arrested, the High Court of Chhattisgarh granted him bail on 14.06.2024. Simultaneously, with regard to the events which happened in the same sequence of event, in the State of Uttar Pradesh, a first information report was lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Police on 30.07.2023 under Sections 420, 468, 471, 473, 484 and 120-B of I.P.C. and that had given rise to Case Crime No. 196 of 2023. When the petitioner, in Case Crime No. 4 of 2024 by the High Court of Chhattisgarh, was released on bail by an order dated 18.06.2024 at 09:20 PM the Uttar Pradesh Police thereafter arrested him on the very sa....
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....310;ज दिनांक 18.06.24 को 21:40 अपने पिता अनवर ढेबर को थाना सिविल लाईनस में गिरफ्तार किया गया जिन्हें न्यायालय समय पर संबंधित न्यायालय में पेश किया जायेगा" The memo of arrest is also being reproduced hereas under: "गिरफ्तारी का प्रपत्र 1. अभियुक्त का नाम अनवर ढेबर पिता....
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....2352; तिवारी, एचसी सूरज कुमार सी/ सुधीर कुमार एचसी प्रवीन शुक्का 5. स्थानीय साक्षी जिसकी उपस्थित में गिरफ्तारी की गयी --- 6. गिरफ्तारी के समय अभियुक्त के कब्जे से प्राप्त वस्तु इत्यादि का विवरण --- 7. गिरफ्तारी साक्....
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....ीसगढ़ 3. अभिरक्षा में लेने की तिथि 18.6.24 4. अपराध संख्या थाना व धारा 196/23 धारा 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120 बी, 384 आई.पी.सी. व 7 क भ्रष्टाचार नि० अधि० 5. किसके द्वारा गिरफ्तार किया गया - एसआई श्री पवन सिंह, एसआई श्री फैजूददीन सिद्दीकी, एचसी प्रवीन श&....
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.... the grounds for such arrest. Section 50 of the Cr. P.C is being reproduced here 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. (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. 6. Learned counsel for the petitioner relying upon a celebrated Division Bench judgment of the Allahabad High Court reported in AIR 1956 All 56 (Vimal Kishore Mehrotra vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and another) submitted that the object underlying the provision was that when the ground of arrest would be communicated to the person who was being arrested then that arrested person would be in a position to make an application to the appropriate Court for bail or move the High Court for appropriate relief. He also submitted that the information wou....
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....ons and he was not informed under which particular provision he was arrested. Nothing was said to him about the allegation made against him or the act alleged to have been done by him and amounting, to an offence punishable under Section 7. 43. The rule in Article 22(1) that a person on being arrested must be informed of the grounds for the arrest is similar to, though not exactly identical with, the rules prevailing in England and in United States of America. The rule prevailing in England is that "in normal circumstances an arrest without warrant either by a policeman or by a private person can be justified only if it is an arrest on a charge made known to the person arrested"; (per Viscount Simon L.C. in - 'Christie v. Leachinsky (1947 AC 573 at p. 586(F)." 44. It is a rule of the common law and is described in different languages by different authorities, but the meaning is the same; the arrested person must be told for what he is arrested or the cause of his arrest. In the United States the accused has the constitutional right "to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation"; see 6th Amendment to the American Constitution. In - 'Hoo....
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.... J. observed at page 343: "Experience has therefore counselled that safeguards must be provided against the dangers of the overzealous as well as the despotic Legislation such as this, requiring that the police must with reasonable promptness show legal cause for detaining arrested persons, constitutes an important safeguard". 48. In 'Unted States v. Cruikshank', (1876) 92 US 542 at page 559 : 23 Law Ed 588 at p. 594(I), it was observed by Waite C.J. that the accused is given the right to have a specification of the charge against him in order that he may decide whether he should present his defence by motion to quash, demurrer or plea. The debates of the Constituent Assembly which framed the Constitution are relevant for the purpose of ascertaining the reason behind a certain enactment. In the Draft Bill of the Constitution the Article corresponding to the Article under consideration was 15A. The reason given for the provisions of the Article was that they were safeguards against illegal or arbitrary arrests (9 Constituent Assembly Debates, p. 1497). 49. The words "grounds for such arrest" or curing in Article 22(1) should be interpreted in the l....
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....r short 'PMLA'). The ED carried out extensive search and seizure operations at various places including the office of the company-M/s. PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd., of which the appellant is the Director. (ii) The company assailed the ECIR by filing Writ Petition(Crl.) Nos. 1129 of 2021 and 1130 of 2021 wherein interim protection against coercive steps was granted by High Court of Delhi on 21st June, 2021. The appellant was also provided interim protection in an application seeking anticipatory bail vide order dated 7th July, 2021. (iii) The FIR No. 224 of 2023 has been registered purely on conjectures and surmises without there being any substance in the allegations set out in the report. The contents of the FIR which were provided to the appellant at a much later stage discloses a purely fictional story without any fundamental facts or material warranting registration of the FIR. (iv) Admittedly, the copy of FIR No. 224 of 2023 was neither made available in the public domain nor a copy thereof supplied to the appellant until his arrest and remand which is in complete violation of the fundamental Right to Life and Personal Liberty enshrined in ....
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.... given in Ram Kishor Arora(supra). (x) That the arrest of the appellant is in gross violation of the provisions contained in Article 22 of the Constitution of India, hence, the appellant is entitled to seek a direction for quashment of the remand order and release from custody forthwith. (xi) That the action of the Investigating Officer in arresting and in seeking remand of the appellant is not only mala fide but also fraught with fraud of the highest order. 2 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1682 (xii) Referring to the remand order dated 4th October, 2023, it was contended that the appellant was kept confined overnight by the Investigating Officer without conveying the grounds of arrest to him. He was presented in the Court of the learned Remand Judge on 4th October, 2023 in the early morning without informing Shri Arshdeep Khurana, the Advocate engaged on behalf of the appellant who was admittedly in contact with the Investigating Officer because he had attended the proceedings at the Police Station Lodhi Colony, post the appellant's arrest. In order to clandestinely procure police custody remand of the appellant, the Investigating Officer, presented the appellan....
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....023 are almost identical to the allegations set out in the EOW FIR. The appellant had been granted protection against arrest by the High Court of Delhi in the EOW FIR. Owing to this protection, the mala fide objective of the authorities in putting the appellant behind bars was not being served and, therefore, a new FIR No. 224 of 2023 with totally cooked up allegations came to be registered and the appellant was illegally deprived of his liberty without the copy of the FIR been provided and without the grounds of arrest being conveyed to the appellant. " 9. He thereafter to further bolster his case, relied upon paragraph nos. 20, 22, 29, 30, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51 and 52 of that judgment and therefore they are being reproduced here as under: "20. The right to life and personal liberty is the most sacrosanct fundamental right guaranteed under Articles 20, 21 and 22 of the Constitution of India. Any attempt to encroach upon this fundamental right has been frowned upon by this Court in a catena of decisions. In this regard, we may refer to the following observations made by this Court in Roy V.D. v. State of Kerala [Roy V.D. v. State of Kerala, (2000) 8 SCC 590 : 2001 SCC ....
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....sons" for which the accused was being arrested. 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 for arrest" as indicated in the arrest memo are purely formal parameters viz. to prevent the accused person from committing any further offence; for proper investigation of the offence; to prevent the accused person from causing the evidence of the offence to disappear or tampering with such evidence in any manner; to prevent the arrested person for making inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the court or to the investigating officer. These reasons would commonly apply to any person arrested on charge of a crime whereas the "grounds of arrest" would be required to contain all such details in hand of the investigating officer which necessitated the arrest of the accused. Simultaneously, the grounds of arrest informed in writing must convey to the arrested accused all basic facts on which he was being arrested so as to provide him an opportunity of defending himself agains....
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....on of Corruption Act, Meerut after going through all the record had stated that only an information was given to the son of the petitioner, Shoeb Dhebar, and he had thereafter stated nothing in the order. For ready reference, the order dated 21.06.2024 is being reproduced here as under: *न्यायालय- विशेष न्यायाधीश (भ्रष्टाचार निवारण अधिनियम) विशेष न्यायालय सं0-2/अपर सत्र न्यायाधीश, मेरठ । मुकदमा अपराध संख्या-196/2023 अन्तर्गत धारा-419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 484 व 120 वी भा०&#....
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....9; कि गिरफ्तारी के कारण से संबंधित कागजात की छायाप्रति प्रदान की जाए। सुना गया तथा समस्त प्रपत्रों का अवलोकन किया गया। प्रपत्रों के अवलोकन से स्पष्ट है कि प्रार्थी/अभियुक्त को दिनांक 18 06.2024 को गिरफ़्तार किया &....
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....81;र को सूचना दिया जाना गिरफ़्तारी प्रपत्र में उल्लेख है। अभियुक्त को अन्तर्गत धारा 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 484 व 120वी भा0द0सं0 व धारा 7क भ्रष्टाचार निवारण अधिनियम में गिरफ़्तार किया गया है। प्रपत्रों के अवलोकन से स्पष्ट है कि अभिय....
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....6. १५ प्रभारी विशेष न्यायाधीश (भ्रष्टाचार निवारण अधिनियम) विशेष न्यायालय सं0-02/अपर सत्र न्यायाधीश, मेरठ 11. In the end, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that since the ground of arrests which were necessarily required to be furnished by the investigating agency in writing at the time of arrest and since they are palpably absent in any of the communications sent by the arresting authorities, the arrest would be bad and illegal in law. In fact learned counsel for the petitioner, relying upon the entire counter affidavit and all the documents annexed therein, states that there is an admission of the respondents that no grounds of arrest were ever supplied to the petitioner. Learned coun....
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...., is imbued with public interest which the State ultimately proposes to regulate exclusively on its industrial policy. It would also be subject to the same limitations as held in M.C. Mehta v. Union of India 61. The legal right of an individual may be founded upon a contract or a statute or an instrument having the force of law. For a public law remedy enforceable under Article 226 of the Constitution, the action of the authority needs to fall in the realm of public law - be it a legislative act of the State, an executive act of the State or an instrumentality or a person or authority imbued with public law element. The question requires to be determined in each case. However, it may not be possible to generalise the nature of the action which would come either under public law remedy or private law field nor is it desirable to give exhaustive list of such actions. As held by this Court in Calcutta Gas Co. (Proprietary) Ltd. v. State of W.B. [AIR 1962 SC 1044 : 1962 Supp (3) SCR 1] (AIR para 5) that if the legal right of a manager of a company is denuded on the basis of recommendation by the Board of Management of the company, it would give him right to enforce his right b....
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....l Advocate General assisted by Sri Rupak Chaubey, Sri J.K. Upadhyay and Sri Vikas Sahay, however, submitted that when there was a memo of arrest and also the son of the petitioner had been informed about the arrest, then the arrest was legal as the reasons were known to the petitioner. Sri Manish Goyal, learned Additional Advocate General, however, submitted that after the petitioner was released on 18.06.2024 from the Chhattisgarh Jail, the Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested the petitioner on that very date vis-a-vis the First Information Report which had given rise to Case Crime No. 196 of 2023. On 19.06.2024, the Sessions Court, Raipur had granted transit remand to enable the petitioner's production before the Special Judge, Prevention of Corruption Act, Meerut. He submits that the petitioner's counsel had opposed the transit remand and had in fact sought bail on the ground that the first information report which had given rise to Case Crime No. 196 of 2023 (Uttar Pradesh) and the first information report which had given rise to Case Crime No. 4 of 2024 (Chhattisgarh) were identical and in fact the petitioner had also mentioned those grounds in the application before the ....
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....ule is explained and justified, and this indirectly establishes the general rule. For example, in Mackalley's case (1), the decision of the Star Chamber in the Countess of Rutland's case (2), was followed to the effect that it is not necessary to state the ground of arrest when the party makes resistance before the person arresting him "can speak all his words." Mackalley's case (1) arose out of an arrest based on a plaint of debt which led to the debtor and his friends resisting the official arrester with fatal results, and it was ruled that "an officer making an arrest, ought to show at whose suit, out of what court, and for what cause he made the arrest, when the party arrested submits himself to the arrest, but not when the party resists." In Rex v. Howarth (3), it is laid down that there is no need to tell a man why he is being arrested when he must, in the circumstances of the arrest, know the reason already. Another qualification may be gathered from the decision of Rex v. Ford (4), to the effect that it is not necessary for a person making an arrest to state the charge in technical or precise language." 14. Sri Manish Goyal, learned Additional Advocate Genera....
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....and. Thus, with some certainty it can be said that the petitioner was never furnished the grounds of arrest as is mandated under Section 50 Cr. P.C. (now the Section 47 of the B.N.S.S.). Here though the nature of the instant case does not demand that we give the grounds which necessarily ought to be there at the time of arrest and which should have been provided to the accused which was being arrested, we consider it appropriate to enumerate a few of the grounds. i. Even though the offences are already enumerated in the first information report, the fact that the police had an apprehension that the accused was a dreaded criminal and therefore he had to be arrested had to be given out as a ground. ii. Further the police apprehended that the accused might tamper with the evidence and pressurize witnesses has also to be given out as a ground of arrest. iii. Still further we are of the view that a ground of arrest could also be that the person sought to be arrested was a habitual criminal and outside the jail he would be a threat to the society. iv. The police should also give as a ground of arrest all the investigation which had preceded the arrest ....
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....;); the appellant was not heard at the time of remand and the grounds of arrest as mandated under Section 50 of the Code have not been furnished to the appellant as against the mere arrest memo. 4. We are inclined to consider only the last issue raised by the appellant with respect to the non- furnishing of the grounds of arrest. 5. Upon perusing annexure P-3, we can see that what has been provided to the appellant is only an arrest memo in the prescribed format, which is meant to be given to the appellant by way of an intimation. It has been filled up with the name of the appellant along with the place of arrest. Additionally, it has been written that he has been arrested based upon the statement of the co-accused. 6. We are in agreement with the submission made by the learned senior counsel appearing for the appellant that the said arrest memo cannot be construed as grounds of arrest, as no other worthwhile particulars have been furnished to him. 7. This, being a clear non-compliance of the mandate under Section 50 of the Code which has been introduced to give effect to Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India, 1950 we are inclined to set asi....
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....ानों का पालन नहीं किया गया है। अतः विवेचक को निरà¥à¤¦à¥‡à¤¶à¤¿à¤¤ किया जाठकि गिरफà¥à¤¤à¤¾à¤°à¥€ के कारण से संबंधित कागजात की छायापà¥à¤°à¤¤à¤¿ पà¥à¤°à¤¦à¤¾à¤¨ की जाà¤à¥¤ सà¥à¤¨à¤¾ गया तथा समसà¥à¤¤ पà¥à¤°à¤ªà¤¤à¥à¤°à¥‹à¤‚ का अवलोकन किया गया। पà¥à¤°à¤ªà¤¤à¥à¤°à¥‹à¤‚ के अवलोकन से सà¥à¤ªà¤·à¥à¤Ÿ है कि पà¥à¤°à¤¾à¤°à¥à¤¥à¥€/ à¤....
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....ा दिया जाना गिरफ़à¥à¤¤à¤¾à¤°à¥€ पà¥à¤°à¤ªà¤¤à¥à¤° में उलà¥à¤²à¥‡à¤– है। अà¤à¤¿à¤¯à¥à¤•à¥à¤¤ को अनà¥à¤¤à¤°à¥à¤—त धारा 27. 6-24 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 484 व 120वी à¤à¤¾0द0सं० व धारा 7क à¤à¥à¤°à¤·à¥à¤Ÿà¤¾à¤šà¤¾à¤° निवारण अधिनियम में गिरफà¥à¤¤à¤¾à¤° किया गया है। 31742 अरà¥à¤ªà¤£à¤·à¥à¤ ान पà¥à¤°à¤ªà¤¤à¥à¤°à¥‹à¤‚ के अवलोकन से सà¥à¤ªà¤·à¥à¤Ÿ है कि अà¤à¤¿à¤¯à¥à¤•à¥à¤¤ के विरूदà¥à¤§ गमà¥....