TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (2) TMI 1871
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....on that presents itself for decision in the present matter. PETITIONERS' CHALLENGE 2. By way of the present petition filed under Article 226 read with Article 227 of the Constitution, the petitioners, who are ordinarily residents of the State of Manipur, seek to challenge their arrest by the respondent No.2/National Investigation Agency ('NIA') on 13.03.2024 in case FIR No. RC-23/2023/NIA/DLI dated 19.07.2023 registered under sections 120-B/121-A/122 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ('IPC') and sections 18/18-B/39 of the UAPA at P.S .: NIA, New Delhi. 3. The petitioners also challenge remand order dated 14.03.2024 whereby the petitioners were initially remanded to NIA custody; and the subsequent orders passed by the learned Special Court in the subject FIR, extending their custody from time-to-time, including the orders remanding them to judicial custody, where they are presently lodged. 4. The principal ground raised by the petitioners challenging their arrest on 13.03.2024 is that the arrests were made in contravention of the requirements of section 50 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ('Cr. P.C.') read with section 43-B of the UAPA. It....
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....24, containing their respective names and other particulars, which arrest memos were also signed by 02 witnesses in each case, and also bore the signatures of the respective arrestees (petitioners); 11.2. The arrest memos also contained the date, time and place of arrest, viz. 13.03.2024 at 11:45 a.m. at Bir Tikendrajit International Airport, Imphal, Manipur; 11.3. The arrest memos served upon the petitioners inter-alia contained the following entry : 6. Whether the grounds of arrest have been explained (If possible, in his mother tongue) to the accused-Yes (extracted from the record) 11.4. It is also not disputed that after being brought to Delhi the petitioners were produced before the learned Special Court at 10:15 a.m. on 14.03.2024, at which point the court recorded the following order : "14.3.2024 Present: - Ms. Kanchan, Ld. Sr. PP for NIA. Sh. Neeraj Mishra, DSP, NIA. Sh. Sunil Kumar Singh, Ld. Legal Aid counsel for accused persons. Accused persons, namely, Ibomcha Meitei @ Landaba, Laimayum Anand Sharma @ Ingba and Thokchom Shyamjai Singh @ Thokchom Gyaneshor @ Thoiba @ Zatawn @ Zaw Tun @ Sh....
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.... of Police Custody. Heard. Record perused. It is contended in the application that credible information was received in respect of accused Thokchom Shyamjai Singh @ Thokchom Gyaneshor @ Thoiba @ Zatawn @ Zaw Tun @ Shidabamapu @ Sidabamapu @ Zaw Tun was due to move to hold meeting with leaders and cadres of underground outfits. It is contended and argued that accused Thokchom Shyamjai Singh @ Thokchom Gyaneshor @Thoiba @ Zatawn @ Zaw Tun Shidabamapu @ Sidabamapu @ Zaw Tun claims himself to be Army Chief of Proscribed organization UNLF. That other two accused are members of proscribed organization associaste of accused Thokchom Shyamjai Singh @ Thokchom Gyaneshor @ Thoiba @ Zatawn @ Zaw Tun @ Shidabamapu @ Sidabamapu @ Zaw Tun. It is contended that recovery of arms, ammunition, foreign currency and foreign Sim has been made from accused. There are allegations of fuelling the unrest in the State of Manipur. Police custody is stated to be required to unearth the conspiracy. The recovery of arms, unaccounted and unexplained foreign currency as well as foreign sims does indicate cogent ground regarding which investigating agency should get a chance to interrogate the ac....
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....ant for purposes of the present proceedings; and 11.8. After expiration of the 03-day additional police custody, the petitioners were remanded back to judicial custody from time- to-time by orders dated 12.04.2024, 20.04.2024, 20.05.2024 and 07.06.2024; and the petitioners have been in judicial custody ever-since. SUBMISSIONS OF PARTIES 12. Though prolix arguments have been advanced by learned counsel appearing on both sides, the essential contestation is whether or not the petitioners were served with the grounds of arrest in writing, as required in law; and consequently, whether their arrest on 13.03.2024 is valid and legal. Stemming from that issue it would also need to be considered whether remand order dated 14.03.2024 and all subsequent orders passed by the learned Special Court, by which the petitioners' custody has been continuing, are sustainable in law. 13. As recorded above, the principal argument advanced on behalf of the petitioners is that they were not served with the 'grounds of arrest' 'in writing'; and that therefore, their arrest is illegal and unconstitutional, especially in view of the recent pronouncements of the Supreme Court i....
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.... also pointed-out on behalf of the NIA that by way of the present proceedings the petitioners have only challenged their arrest and remand; but they have not sought bail from this court. 16. The relevant contentions raised on behalf of both sides have been considered and analysed as part of the discussion that follows. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS 17. The legal proposition, on which the rival contentions of the parties are based, arises from the following judicial precedents, the relevant portions of which have been extracted below : 17.1. The first judgment cited in which the Supreme court dwelt upon the issue of whether the 'grounds of arrest' are required to be communicated to an arrestee in writing was Pankaj Bansal. Interpreting the provisions of section 19 of the PMLA in light of Article 22(1) of the Constitution, in Pankaj Bansal the Supreme Court made the following essential observations : "23. Viewed in this context, the remand order dated 15-6-2023 passed by the learned Vacation Judge/Additional Sessions Judge, Panchkula, reflects total failure on his part in discharging his duty as per the expected standard. The learned Judge did not even r....
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....tutional objective underlying such information being given to the arrested person. Conveyance of this information is not only to apprise the arrested person of why he/she is being arrested but also to enable such person to seek legal counsel and, thereafter, present a case before the court under Section 45 to seek release on bail, if he/she so chooses . ... ... Further, in the event their grounds of arrest were equally voluminous, it would be well-nigh impossible for either Pankaj Bansal or Basant Bansal to record and remember all that they had read or heard being read out for future recall so as to avail legal remedies. More so, as a person who has just been arrested would not be in a calm and collected frame of mind and may be utterly incapable of remembering the contents of the grounds of arrest read by or read out to him/her. The very purpose of this constitutional and statutory protection would be rendered nugatory by permitting the authorities concerned to merely read out or permit reading of the grounds of arrest, irrespective of their length and detail, and claim due compliance with the constitutional requirement under Article 22(1) and the statutory mandate under Section 1....
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....e 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 compliance with mandate of Article 22(1) of the Constitution. It is also observed that the arrested person before being produced before the Special Court within twenty-four hours or for that purposes of remand on each occasion, the Court is free to look into the relevant records made available by the authority about the involvemen....
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....n 19 of the PMLA and section 43-B of the UAPA insofar as the necessity of furnishing grounds of arrest in writing is concerned, with the following significant observations : "16. Upon a careful perusal of the statutory provisions (reproduced supra), we find that there is no significant difference in the language employed in Section 19(1) PMLA and Section 43-B(1) UAPA which can persuade us to take a view that the interpretation of the phrase "inform him of the grounds for such arrest" made by this Court in Pankaj Bansal [Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India, (2024) 7 SCC 576] should not be applied to an accused arrested under the provisions of the UAPA . "17. We find that the provision regarding the communication of the grounds of arrest to a person arrested contained in Section 43-B(1) UAPA is verbatim the same as that in Section 19(1) PMLA. The contention advanced by the learned ASG that there are some variations in the overall provisions contained in Section 19 PMLA and Sections 43-A and 43-B UAPA would not have any impact on the statutory mandate requiring the arresting officer to inform the grounds of arrest to the person arrested under Section 43- B(1) UAPA at the....
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.... * * * * * "37. The interpretation given by the learned Single Judge that the grounds of arrest were conveyed to the accused in writing vide the arrest memo is unacceptable on the face of the record because the arrest memo does not indicate the grounds of arrest being incorporated in the said document. Column 9 of the arrest memo (Annexure P-7) which is being reproduced hereinbelow simply sets out the "reasons for arrest" which are formal in nature and can be generally attributed to any person arrested on accusation of an offence whereas the "grounds of arrest" would be personal in nature and specific to the person arrested. ..... ..... * * * * * "44. It was the fervent contention of the learned ASG that in Ram Kishor Arora [Ram Kishor Arora v. Enforcement Directorate, (2024) 7 SCC 599], a two-Judge Bench of this Court interpreted the judgment in Pankaj Bansal [Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India, (2024) 7 SCC 576] to be having a prospective effect and thus the ratio of Pankaj Bansal [Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India, (2024) 7 SCC 576] cannot come to the appellant's aid. Indisputably, the appellant herein was remanded to police custody on 4-10-2023 wh....
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....d to a direction for release from custody by applying the ratio of the judgment rendered by this Court in Pankaj Bansal [Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India, (2024) 7 SCC 576]." (emphasis supplied) 18. Pertinently, in Pankaj Bansal and Prabir Purkayastha the arrest was held to be illegal and was quashed; and the arrestee was directed to be released from custody (in the case of Prabir Purkayastha, by directing the arrestee to furnish a bail bond). 19. If there was to remain any doubt about the sacrosanctity attached to furnishing the grounds of arrest in writing to an arrestee, in its recent judgment in Vihaan Kumar vs. State of Haryana & Anr., [2025 SCC OnLine SC 269] the Supreme Court has minced no words in holding that : "21. Therefore, we conclude: a) The requirement of informing a person arrested of grounds of arrest is a mandatory requirement of Article 22(1) ; b) The information of the grounds of arrest must be provided to the arrested person in such a manner that sufficient knowledge of the basic facts constituting the grounds is imparted and communicated to the arrested person effectively in the language which he understands. The mode and met....
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....is detention, may not have immediate and easy access to the legal process for securing his release, which would otherwise be available to the friends, relatives and such nominated persons by way of engaging lawyers, briefing them to secure release of the detained person on bail at the earliest. Therefore, the purpose of communicating the grounds of arrest to the detenue, and in addition to his relatives as mentioned above is not merely a formality but to enable the detained person to know the reasons for his arrest but also to provide the necessary opportunity to him through his relatives, friends or nominated persons to secure his release at the earliest possible opportunity for actualising the fundamental right to liberty and life as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. Hence, the requirement of communicating the grounds of arrest in writing is not only to the arrested person, but also to the friends, relatives or such other person as may be disclosed or nominated by the arrested person, so as to make the mandate of Article 22(1) of the Constitution meaningful and effective failing which, such arrest may be rendered illegal." (per N. Kotiswar Singh, J.) 20. It m....
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.... be any two views, that the mandate of Pankaj Bansal would apply to the arrest of the petitioners in the present case, even though they were arrested on 13.03.2024. 26. As noted above, in the present case it is not disputed that the only 'manner' in which the grounds of arrest were purportedly communicated to the petitioners was by explaining the grounds to them, as noted in Entry No.6 of the arrest memos, which can only mean orally. The NIA has nowhere even contended that the grounds of arrest were furnished to the petitioners in writing. 27. Another point raised on behalf of the NIA is that even if the grounds of arrest were not communicated to the petitioners in writing in the arrest memo, such grounds were duly communicated to them in the remand applications filed before the learned Special Court. 28. This ground is again without merit, inasmuch as a perusal of the remand applications would show that what was stated there was only the gamut of allegations against the petitioners collectively, without any specificity or particularisation as to what was alleged against each of the individual petitioners. As held by the Supreme Court in Prabir Purkayastha the diff....
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....gment has accordingly been set-aside. 32. It may also be recorded for completeness that in a judgment rendered by a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in Manulla M. Kanchwala vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors., [MANU/MH/5167/2024] while interpreting the provisions of section 50 of the Cr. P.C., the court has held that arrests made post Pankaj Bansal were vitiated since they did not comply with the verdict of the Supreme Court in Prabir Purkayastha. The special leave petition challenging Manulla M. Kanchwala has been dismissed by the Supreme court in-limine vide order dated 04.11.2024 in SLP (CRL) Diary No.43194/2024. 33. It must be articulated that, in light of the verdicts of the Supreme Court in Pankaj Bansal, Prabir Purkayastha, and Vihaan Kumar, which are founded on Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India, there remains no doubt that the requirement of serving grounds of arrest in writing to an arrestee is compulsory and unquestionable regardless of whether an arrest has been made under the PMLA or the UAPA or under any other criminal statute. Moreover, the burden to prove compliance with the requirements of Article 22(1) of the Constitution always rests with the Inv....