2 publishers · first seen Thu, 05 Nov 2026 09:05 UTC · updated Fri, 06 Nov 2026 04:48 UTC
The Supreme Court of India ruled that the 24-hour constitutional deadline for producing an accused before a magistrate begins from the moment of detention, not from the formal recording of arrest. The bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S Chandurkar emphasized that the terms 'arrested' and 'detained' under Article 22(2) of the Constitution must be treated as synonymous. The court clarified that the 24-hour period includes the entire time spent in custody, excluding only the time reasonably required to travel to the magistrate's court. This ruling aims to prevent police from keeping individuals in custody for extended periods before formally recording their arrest, thereby safeguarding personal liberty and curbing custodial abuses.
The court's decision was based on the interpretation that the 24-hour period should commence from the moment a person is detained by the arresting authority suspecting them of having committed an offence, when their liberty is effectively curtailed. The ruling also directed magistrates to independently verify the actual date and time of detention and assess whether the duration of detention was reasonable.
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