Code of Criminal Procedure Explained

The Code of Criminal Procedure forms the bedrock of any and every Judicial Service exam in the country. Its thorough knowledge is a must for all aspirants of RJS, DJS, PCS (J) and every other Judicial Service exam. To help such aspirants DELHI LAW ACADEMY JAIPUR has launched a series of study material modules on all important aspects of this vital part of their syllabus:

Arrest How Made: Section 46

• In making an arrest: police officer or other person making arrest
  • shall actually touch or confine body of the person to be arrested
• unless
  • there be a submission to custody by word or action

• If such person forcibly resists the endeavour to arrest him or attempts to evade the arrest
• such police officer or other person
  • may use all means necessary to effect arrest

• this section does not give a right to cause death of a person
  • who is not accused of an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life

Where a Woman Is to Be Arrested

• her submission to custody, on an oral intimation of arrest
  • shall be presumed
• unless circumstances indicate to the contrary

• A police officer shall not touch
  • the person of the woman for making her arrest
• unless
  • circumstances otherwise require or the police officer is a female

Section 46(4)

• No woman shall be arrested after sunset and before sunrise
  • except in exceptional circumstances
• Where it is so required:
• prior permission of judicial magistrate of first class shall be obtained
  • by a woman police officer

What Is an Arrest?

• The expression arrest has neither been defined in the Code of Criminal Procedure nor in the Indian Penal Code or any other enactment dealing with criminal offences.
• The only indication as to what would constitute arrest may perhaps be found in Section 46 of the Code from which this much is clear that in order to make an arrest the police officer or other person making the same shall actually touch or confine the body of the person to be arrested, unless there be submission to the custody by word or action.
• Section 46 does not contemplate any formality before a person can be said to be taken in custody. Submission to the custody by words of mouth or action by a person is sufficient. A person directly giving a police officer by word of mouth information which may be used as evidence against him may be deemed to have submitted himself to the custody of the Police Officer.
• The ordinary dictionary meaning of arrest is to legally restrain a person’s movements for the purpose of detaining a person in custody by authority of law.

📘 Free Study Material for Judiciary Aspirants!

Download our FREE study material prepared by Delhi Law Academy’s expert faculty.

✅ Check Free Study Material

Arrest as per Halsbury’s Laws of England

• Arrest consists in the seizure or touching of a person’s body with a view to his restraint; words may, however, amount to an arrest if, in the circumstances of the case, they are calculated to bring, and do bring, to a person’s notice that he is under compulsion and he thereafter submits to the compulsion.

Deemed Surrender to Police

• When a person not in custody approaches a police officer investigating an offence and offers to give information leading to the discovery of a fact, having a bearing on the charge which may be made against him, he may appropriately be deemed so have surrendered himself to police.

When Is a Person in Custody?

• When he is in duress either because he is held by the investigating agency or other police or allied authority or is under the control of the court having been remanded by judicial order, or having offered himself to the court’s jurisdiction and submitted to its orders by physical presence.
• A person can be in custody not merely when the police arrest him, produce him before a Magistrate and gets a remand to judicial or other custody. He can be stated to be in judicial custody when he surrenders before the court and submits to its directions.
• Custody is physical control or at least physical presence of the accused in court coupled with submission to the jurisdiction and order of the court.
• In every arrest there is a custody but not vice-versa. A custody may amount to arrest in certain cases, but not in all cases

Pursuit of Offenders into Other Jurisdictions: Section 48

• A police officer may
  • for arresting without warrant any person whom he is authorised to arrest
• pursue such person into any place in India

No Unnecessary Restraint: Section 49

• Person arrested
  • shall not be subjected to more restraint than is necessary to prevent his escape

Explore More Free Resources from Delhi Law Academy

Stay updated with our monthly current affairs and explore more important legal and judicial-service articles from Delhi Law Academy.