Supreme Court stays order awarding ₹10 lakh compensation to man held in illegal custody by UP Police

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed an Allahabad High Court order directing the Uttar Pradesh government to pay ₹10 lakh compensation to a man who was illegally detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police for over three months.

A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Sanjeev Sachdeva passed the interim stay order on an appeal filed by the State government challenging the High Court ruling.

"Issue notice. In the meanwhile, the impugned order in so far as it relates to imposition of cost of ₹10 lakh on the petitioner shall remain stayed till the next date of hearing," the Court said.

The High Court had held that the man’s arrest was illegal because the police failed to furnish written grounds of arrest as mandated by recent Supreme Court judgments.

The Uttar Pradesh government's counsel told the Supreme Court today that it was not disputing the High Court's finding that grounds of arrest had not been supplied to the detainee.

“I am not shying away from the fact that grounds of arrest were not supplied. The only point I am canvassing is limited to the extent of the cost which is imposed. The concerned SHO was suspended by us,” the counsel told the Court.

The Court proceeded to stay the directive for the payment of compensation to the detainee.

The case stems from a habeas corpus petition filed by one Manoj Kumar before the Allahabad High Court challenging his arrest in a criminal case registered in Unnao and seeking his release from custody.

Kumar was arrested on January 27, 2026, in connection with an FIR lodged in September 2024. He argued that the arrest was illegal because the police failed to furnish him with written grounds of arrest as mandated by recent Supreme Court judgments interpreting Article 22(1) of the Constitution.

Examining the arrest memo, the High Court found that it merely mentioned the crime number and did not disclose the grounds on which Kumar was being arrested. Relying on the Supreme Court’s decisions in Mihir Rajesh Shah v. State of Maharashtra and Dr Rajinder Rajan v. Union of India, the High Court held that failure to communicate the grounds of arrest rendered both the arrest and the subsequent remand illegal.

The High Court proceeded to direct the State's Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to explain why exemplary costs should not be imposed on the State for Kumar’s illegal incarceration, which by then had continued for nearly three months.

The Court found that the affidavit subsequently filed by the Additional Chief Secretary failed to address that issue altogether. Instead, it merely stated that reports had been sought from authorities and that the matter was under consideration.

Expressing strong displeasure, the High Court remarked that the Additional Chief Secretary appeared not to have even gone through the Court’s earlier order.

“If this is the non-application of mind at the end of the highest authority of the Home Department i.e. Additional Chief Secretary (Home), we can well understand as to how the other authorities of the State are working!!!” the Court said.

Consequently, on April 29, the High Court allowed the habeas corpus petition, declared Kumar’s arrest illegal, set aside the remand order and directed his release.

It also imposed costs of ₹10 lakh on the State government, holding that Kumar had been deprived of his liberty for over three months because authorities failed to comply with constitutional safeguards laid down by the Supreme Court. 

The State has now challenged the compensation component of the High Court's judgment before the Supreme Court, which has now stayed the payment pending further consideration of the State's appeal.

The Uttar Pradesh government was represented by Additional Advocate General and Senior Advocate Sharan Dev Thakur, along with Standing Counsel Shaurya Sahay.