Arnesh Kumar guidelines
Also called: Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (2014) · Topic: Justice Delivery: Subordinate Courts, Tribunals, Legal Aid and Judicial Reforms · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Arnesh Kumar guidelines are directions the Supreme Court gave in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (2014). For offences punishable with up to seven years in jail, the police must not arrest anyone automatically. They must write down reasons showing why the arrest is really needed. Magistrates must check those reasons before they allow the person to stay in custody. The aim is to stop needless arrests, which harm a person's liberty under Article 21.
Example
Suppose a man is accused of an offence carrying a five-year sentence. He has a fixed address and is cooperating with the police. Under these guidelines, the police should not simply arrest him. They should first send him a notice to appear. The BNSS (s.35) now prefers this notice route too.
Don't confuse with
- D.K. Basu guidelines (1997): these lay down how an arrest must be carried out, such as an arrest memo, informing a relative and a medical check. The Arnesh Kumar guidelines deal with whether an arrest should happen at all.
Related concepts
- Criminal justice system
- Police
- Commissionerate system of policing
- Cognizable offence
- Non-cognizable offence
- First Information Report
- Zero FIR
- e-FIR
- Charge sheet
- Police custody