The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has refused to entertain a petition seeking a direction to the police to arrest the accused in a criminal case with an observation that court cannot coerce the police to arrest someone since it was the prerogative of the investigating officer concerned.
Refusing to pass such a direction to Koodal Pudur police here in a cheating case, Justice P.N. Prakash said: “In the considered opinion of this Court, such a direction cannot be issued inasmuch as it is the discretion of the Investigating Officer to either arrest or not to arrest the accused.”
He recalled that in 1994 itself, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, led by the then Chief Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah, had said: “No arrest can be made because it is lawful for the police officer to do so. The existence of the power to arrest is one thing. The justification for the exercise of it is quite another.
“The police officer must be able to justify the arrest apart from his power to do so. Arrest and detention in police lock-up of a person can cause incalculable harm to the reputation and self-esteem of a person. No arrest can be made in a routine manner on a mere allegation of commission of an offence made against a person.
“It would be prudent for a police officer in the interest of protection of the constitutional rights of a citizen and perhaps in his own interest that no arrest should be made without a reasonable satisfaction reached after some investigation as to the genuineness and bona fides of a complaint and a reasonable belief both as to the person’s complicity and even so as to the need to effect arrest.”
Refusing to pass such a direction to Koodal Pudur police here in a cheating case, Justice P.N. Prakash said: “In the considered opinion of this Court, such a direction cannot be issued inasmuch as it is the discretion of the Investigating Officer to either arrest or not to arrest the accused.”
He recalled that in 1994 itself, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, led by the then Chief Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah, had said: “No arrest can be made because it is lawful for the police officer to do so. The existence of the power to arrest is one thing. The justification for the exercise of it is quite another.
“The police officer must be able to justify the arrest apart from his power to do so. Arrest and detention in police lock-up of a person can cause incalculable harm to the reputation and self-esteem of a person. No arrest can be made in a routine manner on a mere allegation of commission of an offence made against a person.
“It would be prudent for a police officer in the interest of protection of the constitutional rights of a citizen and perhaps in his own interest that no arrest should be made without a reasonable satisfaction reached after some investigation as to the genuineness and bona fides of a complaint and a reasonable belief both as to the person’s complicity and even so as to the need to effect arrest.”
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