Andhra HC warns magistrates against casual nod to police detentions

Amid growing uproar by the Opposition and civil society that the police were arresting and detaining the government critics without warrant, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on March 8 directed the magistrates not to authorise detention without recording reasons in petty offences involving less than 7 years of punishment.

Further, the High Court has directed the police to follow the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court on arrests and detentions “scrupulously in all sincerity” while exercising the powers to arrest the accused without warrant under the provisions of Section 41 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Responding to a petition filed by the Telugu regional television channel TV5, the Andhra High Court bench comprising chief justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice AV Sesha Sai directed all the judicial magistrates to record their satisfaction before authorising detention of accused in exercise of power under Section 167 of CrPC.

The Court, while reiterating the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court, said, “the judicial magistrates are expected to apply their mind objectively in obtaining facts of the case and pass a reasoned order.”

Referring to the guidelines laid down by the apex court on arrests and detentions, the High Court warned that “any negligence in this regard shall be viewed seriously and the judicial magistrate concerned shall be liable for departmental action by the High Court as and when such defective detention authorization orders are brought to the notice of the High Court by or on behalf of the accused.”

The High Court issued these directives while disposing of the public interest litigation filed by TV5 seeking to direct the State of Andhra Pradesh not to foist cases on media personnel or social media users “in a cavalier manner or sans concrete evidence corroborating the prima facie involvement of the alleged perpetrators in the crime.”