Delhi High Court sentences sub-inspector to one-day jail for violating arrest rules

In a rare judgement, the Delhi High Court has sentenced a police sub-inspector to one-day imprisonment for arresting a person in contempt of guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, Live Law reported on Tuesday.

Justice Najmi Waziri had passed the verdict on December 7, but the order was made available on Tuesday.

Sub-inspector Kuldip of the Maurya Enclave police station in Delhi had arrested a person named Rakesh Kumar on August 23, 2020, on charges of criminal breach of trust, the Hindustan Times reported.

Kumar had been released on bail after spending 11 days in prison. However, he moved the Delhi High Court alleging that his arrest was in violation of the rules laid down by the Supreme Court in its judgement in the 2014 Arnesh Kumar vs state of Bihar case.

In the Arnesh Kumar judgement, the Supreme Court had held that accused persons should be arrested only in exceptional cases if their alleged crimes are punishable with less than seven years of imprisonment. Instead, in such cases, the accused should be served a notice under Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code asking them to appear before the police, the Supreme Court had held, according to Live Law.

In his petition, Kumar contended that his offence fell in this…

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