The Allahabad high court has pulled up the Uttar Pradesh Police over the unlawful detention of a man before his formal arrest, observing that the police appeared to be acting as a “law unto themselves”.
With these observations, a division bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Achal Sachdev allowed a habeas corpus petition filed by a man while holding his detention in police custody to be ‘unlawful’. The court directed his immediate release, if he was not required in any other case. “Repeatedly, cases have come before this Court in which the strict requirements of law, both procedural and substantive, have not been adhered to in letter and spirit… It appears that the police are a law unto themselves”, the court added. Police records show that one Deepak of Noida (petitioner) and four others were taken into custody the same evening. “The situation on the ground does not absolve the police of errors committed by them in failing to proceed strictly in accordance with law. The court further observed that the judicial magistrate had gravely erred by failing to scrutinise the police papers for compliance with the applicable legal requirements.
In its October 7 judgment, the court described Gautam Budh Nagar Noida ACP Kamlesh Kant and IO Anuj Kumar as highly ignorant of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, procedures and criticised their cavalier approach to the statutory requirements. A violence occurred between two groups on August 23, 2026. It is for the police to understand that all the provisions in the CrPC/BNSS providing protection to a person sought to be detained arise from the constitutional protection guaranteed under Article 22(1)”, the court said.
“This case reflects the sordid state of affairs prevailing in the Uttar Pradesh Police”, the court observed. In the present case, the court said the police failed to comply with the procedural requirements of preventive detention under the law. Referring to instances of suspects allegedly being kept in police stations for more than 24 hours and subsequently released, the court warned: “Henceforth, such action on the part of the police shall not be tolerated on the ground of lack of knowledge of procedure and shall be deemed to be malicious unless the police provide material enabling the Court to take a contrary view”.
