The Supreme Court on 5th November ruled that an arrest occurs the moment an official “touches” an individual to restrain their liberty, immediately triggering the 24-hour countdown to produce them before a Judicial Magistrate. According to a report in The Hindu, a Bench headed by Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said the word ‘arrest’ is not defined in the penal statutes, past or present, from the colonial Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure or its successor, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita of 2023. The Bench pointed out that the ambiguity in the definition of ‘arrest’ has allowed law enforcement agencies to detain a person for days on end, employ third-degree measures, including torture, to squeeze out confessions, before the formal arrest is recorded. “The 24-hour timeline as mandated under clause (2) of Article 22 of the Constitution would commence from the date and time of detention of the person and when his liberty stands curtailed, and not from the time of his formal arrest,” Justice Bhuyan held. “Article 22(2) does not sanction the creation of any buffer zone where the liberty of an individual is curtailed for investigating purposes, but not formally shown as arrested. Creation or contemplation of such a buffer zone is unconstitutional,” the court held. (Posted on 6th November)