4 min delay in informing grounds can’t render arrest illegal: HC

The Bombay high court ruled a 4-minute delay in communicating arrest grounds does not make the arrest illegal, upholding a lower court's decision.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday held that a delay of four minutes in communicating the grounds of arrest to an accused does not render the arrest illegal, while dismissing a petition filed by a Bhaindar resident booked by the Versova police in a rape case.

4 min delay in informing grounds can’t render arrest illegal: HC

34-year-old Gunwant Tarachand Jain was arrested at 10:56pm on November 21, hours after a rape case had been registered against him at the Versova police station, and the grounds of arrest were communicated to him at 11pm, according to police records.

The next afternoon, he was produced before the Andheri magistrate court which declared his arrest illegal after noticing that the grounds of arrest were communicated by the police to him four minutes after formally placing him under arrest and, therefore, deemed the arrest was in breach of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in a series of judgements.

The police carried the matter in appeal to the Dindoshi session court, which, on December 24, set aside the magistrate court order, holding that the delay was not unreasonable and, therefore, the arrest was not illegal.

Thereafter, Jain approached the high court, where a single judge bench of justice Dr Neela Gokhale upheld the sessions court order, observing that in view of “the factual matrix, the timeline and the settled legal position, it is clear that the police have scrupulously followed the legally mandated procedure” and there was no infirmity in the sessions court order.

“The grounds of arrest are conveyed to the petitioner within four minutes of his arrest,” the bench observed. “There is no violation of any fundamental right of the petitioner.”