No Immediate Arrest in Domestic Violence Case without CJM Approval: Calcutta HC

Calcutta High Court’s registrar general Chaitali Chattopadhyay has issued a notification cautioning all police stations in the state to be careful about immediate and unnecessary arrest of accused persons under Section 498 (A) of the IPC which is about punishment for domestic violence against women.

In the notification, issued on Monday and uploaded in the website of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday, a recent order of the Supreme Court on this count has been mentioned cautioning the police officials concerned of punishment in case of violation of the norms on this count.

As per the notification, the police official investigating a case under Section 498 (A) of IPC should first thoroughly investigate the merits of the complaint filed under this section in a particular case. If the investigating official finds merits in the complaint he or she will have to prepare a checklist of the grounds under which the accused might be taken into custody.

Thereafter, the investigating official will have to make a submission to the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) concerned, which will finally take the decision on whether the accused can be taken into custody or not.

In case the investigation officer concerned does not find much merit in the complaint filed under this section, he or she will have to inform the police superintendent concerned with a report on why arrest should not be made in a particular case within two days after the complaint has been filed. The preliminary interrogation part of accused will also have to be completed within that period, the Calcutta High Court directive has stated

Welcoming the move, senior counsel of the Calcutta High Court, Kaushik Gupta said that the order is so timely considering that there had been blatant misuse of Section 498 (A) by the complainants as there was a provision for immediate arrest under the section as soon as the complaint is filed. “In no civilized society, there can be punishment before the trial. So this is a timely move by the Calcutta High Court,” he said.