Arrest should be last option for police; irrational, indiscriminate arrests amount to gross violation of human rights: Allahabad High Court

Irrational and indiscriminate arrests are gross violation of human rights and arrest should be the last option for the police, the Allahabad High Court said on Tuesday, granting anticipatory bail in a matrimonial dispute (Arshad v. State of Uttar Pradesh)..A single-judge Bench of Justice Siddharth took into consideration the nature of accusation along with spike in Covid-19 cases to grant pre-arrest bail to the accused. "The courts have repeatedly held that arrest should be the last option for the police and it should be restricted to those exceptional cases where arresting the accused is imperative or his custodial interrogation is required. Irrational and indiscriminate arrests are gross violation of human rights," the order passed by the Court said..The anticipatory bail application was moved by Arshad, who was charged with offences under Sections 498A (husband or relative of husband subjecting a woman to cruelty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 307 (attempt to murder) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the India Penal Code, Section 3/4 of Dowry Prohibition Act as well as Section 3/4 of Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019. .Advocate for the opposite party failed to file the counter affidavit before the court, in pursuance of the previous order. Additional Government Advocate appearing for the State, opposed the prayer for anticipatory bail submitting that the apprehension of the applicant is not founded on any material on record. "Only on the basis of imaginary fear, anticipatory bail cannot be granted," it was argued. .The Court, however, observed that personal liberty is a very precious fundamental right and should be curtailed only in those exceptional cases wherein it is imperative or the custodial interrogation of accused is required.In this regard, reliance was placed on the third report of National Police Commission which was discussed by the Supreme Court in Joginder Kumar v. State of Uttar Pradesh."Apex Court has referred to the third report of National Police Commission wherein it is mentioned that arrests by the police in India is one of the chief source of corruption in the police. The report suggested that, by and large, nearly 60 percent of the arrests were either unnecessary or unjustified and that such unjustified police action accounted for 43.2 percent of expenditure of the jails. Personal liberty is a very precious fundamental rights and it should be curtailed only when it becomes imperative. According to the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, the arrest of an accused should be made.".Accordingly, the Court granted anticipatory bail subject to the following conditions.(i) The applicant shall make himself available for interrogation by the police officer as and when required; (ii) The applicant shall not directly or indirectly, make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade from disclosing such facts to the Court or to any police officer; (iii) The applicant shall not leave India without the previous permission of the Court and if he has passport, the same shall be deposited by him before the S.S.P./S.P. concerned. (iv) The party shall file computer generated copy of such order downloaded from the official website of High Court Allahabad. (v) The concerned Court/Authority/Official shall verify the authenticity of such computerized copy of the order from the official website of High Court Allahabad and shall make a declaration of such verification in writing..[Read Order]