Constitution of India, 1950
Article 21—Protection of life and personal liberty—No arrest can be made because it is lawful for the Police to do so—Existence of power to arrest is one thing and justification for the said exercise is another—No arrest should be made without a reasonable satisfaction reached after some investigation as to the genuineness and bona fides of the complaint/information, as any arrest would deny a person of his liberty, which is a very serious matter, as arrest brings humiliation, curtails freedom and casts a scar forever.
[Para 15]
Article 21—Illegal arrest—Compensation—Petitioner, a young advocate laments that his personal liberty is torn into smithereens by a few, megalomaniac and mayhem happy, police personnel in an act of outrage of his human rights—Offences alleged against petitioner are punishable under Sections 379 and 447 of the Indian Penal Code—Personal liberty of petitioner is snatched away by the fourth respondent and his cohorts in a brutal manner without even a warrant of arrest or even registration of an FIR—Records would reveal that the petitioner has been assaulted and tortured throughout his travel in the jeep and has later been threatened to give evidence against himself, all of which cannot but be termed to be grossly illegal and blatantly highhanded—Power of arrest of an accused is misused and abused in the case at hand—Arrest of petitioner held to be illegal—State government directed to pay rupees three lakhs to the petitioner as compensation with liberty to recover the same from the salary of officers found guilty in the departmental enquiry.
[Paras 16 to 20]