Supreme Court Clarifies 24-Hour Deadline for Producing Arrested Persons Before Magistrate

The Supreme Court has ruled that the 24-hour constitutional deadline for producing an arrested person before a Magistrate begins from the moment of actual detention, when the person’s liberty is curtailed, and not from the time the police formally record the arrest. The judgment came on appeals filed by four persons challenging a Tripura High Court decision denying them bail in a case registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. A Bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S. Chandurkar held that the 24-hour period prescribed under Article 22(2) of the Constitution must be calculated from the date and time when a person is actually detained, and not from the time when the investigating agency formally records the arrest. It further held that detention beyond this period without the authority of a Magistrate is impermissible. Rejecting the distinction between detention and formal arrest for calculating the constitutional deadline, the Justice Bhuyan-led Bench said that treating the 24-hour period as commencing only after the completion of search and seizure and from the time of formal arrest was not only unsustainable in law but also entirely unconstitutional. The Supreme Court further clarified that if a person’s detention continues beyond 24 hours without production before a Magistrate, the person must be released forthwith.