Grounds Of Arrest Under Sections-47 and Section-48 of the BNSS, 2023 And Article 22(1) And (2) Of Constitution Of India

Question Of Law:

Whether the constitutional test under Article 22(1) and (2), as operationalised through Sections 47 and 48 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short, BNSS), is to be applied with reference to the nearest Magistrate before whom the accused is first produced after arrest, for seeking transit remand, or for any other reason, what-so-ever, or, whether it must necessarily be confined to the jurisdictional Magistrate before whom he may ultimately be brought?

What The Law And The Precedents Say On The Question Of Law:

The law of the subject has evolved a great deal in the passage of time. The infraction of art-22(1) unquestionably vitiates arrest of the accused. Reference and reliance can be placed on the following Judgments, which have been lined up in a descending order:

· Mihir Rajesh Shah v. State of Maharashtra, (2026) 1 SCC 500;

· Vihaan Kumar Vs. State of Haryana, (2025) 5 SCC 799;

· Kasireddy Upender Reddy Vs. State of Andhra Pradesh, 2025 SCC OnLine SC 1228- The arrests will stand vitiated and the accused will be entitled to bail if the grounds of arrest were not communicated to the accused at the time or before the production of accused before the Magistrate before whom transit remand was sought by the investigating agencies;

· Pankaj Bansal Vs. Union of India [(2024) 7 SCC 576;

· Prabir Purkayastha Vs. State (NCT of Delhi), (2024) 8 SCC 254;

· Vishal Manohar Mandrekar Vs. State of Telangana, 2024 SCC OnLine TS 69;

· Gautam Navlakha Vs. National Investigating Agency [(2022) 13 SCC 542

· DK Basu Vs. State of West Bengal, (1997) 1 SCC 416;

· Joginder Kumar Vs. State of UP., (1994) 4 SCC 260;

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