{"id":385706,"date":"2026-06-01T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T03:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=385706"},"modified":"2026-05-31T11:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T06:29:16","slug":"missing-right-seek-arrest-criminal-investigation-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/06\/01\/missing-right-seek-arrest-criminal-investigation-india\/","title":{"rendered":"The Missing Right to Seek Arrest in Criminal Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Arrest in India is carefully controlled, constitutionally guarded, and judicially restrained. That is as it should be.<\/p>\n

In Indian criminal procedure, arrest occupies a peculiar space. It is powerful and coercive yet entirely left to the discretion of the investigating agency. Courts have repeatedly cautioned against its misuse, refined its contours, and restrained its excesses. But in doing so, the system has quietly created another problem: There is almost no remedy when arrest is deliberately not exercised.<\/p>\n

The law fears wrongful arrest. But it does not fear strategic non-arrest.<\/p>\n

Arrest as discretion, not direction<\/h2>\n

The legal position is settled. Arrest is part of investigation, and investigation belongs to the police.<\/p>\n

In Sakiri Vasu<\/span> v. State of U.P.<\/span><\/a>1<\/sup><\/a>, the Supreme Court made it clear that while courts can ensure that an investigation takes place, they cannot control the manner in which it is conducted. That includes the decision to arrest. Even though courts possess incidental powers.<\/p>\n

This position is constitutionally reinforced. In Joginder Kumar<\/span> v. State of U.P.<\/span><\/a>2<\/sup><\/a>, the court held that arrest cannot be routine it must be necessary. Later, in Arnesh Kumar<\/span> v. State of Bihar<\/span><\/a>3<\/sup><\/a>, the court went further, effectively transforming arrest from a default step into an exception that must be justified.<\/p>\n

The message is unambiguous:<\/p>\n

The police may arrest but only if they can defend it.<\/p>\n

What is equally unambiguous, though less discussed, is this:<\/p>\n

No one not even a court can compel them to do so.<\/p>\n

Why arrest?<\/h2>\n

While the law has justifiably moved towards restricting unnecessary arrests, it continues to recognise that custodial interrogation remains indispensable in certain categories of cases. Offences involving organised criminal networks, large-scale economic frauds, recovery of stolen property, and conspiracies spanning multiple actors often require more than voluntary cooperation. The discovery of material objects, tracing of proceeds, and identification of accomplices are, in practice, frequently contingent on custodial access.<\/p>\n

Yet, this necessity operates in an unusual vacuum.<\/p>\n

Custodial interrogation: A convenient argument<\/h2>\n

The phrase “custodial interrogation” has acquired a curious dual life in Indian criminal litigation.<\/p>\n

In anticipatory bail proceedings, it is invoked almost ritualistically. The State opposes anticipatory bail on the ground that recovery is pending, evidence is yet to be unearthed, and so custodial interrogation is necessary. Courts often accept this submission and deny pre-arrest protection.<\/p>\n

But denial of anticipatory bail is not a direction to arrest.<\/p>\n

The consequence is predictable. The State argues for custody when it suits the litigation. The same State may avoid arrest when it suits the investigation.<\/p>\n

Custodial interrogation, then, is not always an investigative necessity. It is often a litigation strategy.<\/p>\n

Further investigation, same discretion<\/h2>\n

Even the stage of further investigation does not alter this position.<\/p>\n

The investigation agency can do further investigation with the leave of the court even after trial begins. Yet, even here, the decision to arrest remains untouched.<\/p>\n

There is no stage of the criminal process where a court can say:<\/p>\n

“Arrest is necessary. Do it.”<\/p>\n

The system is designed to ensure that arrest is never judicially pre-approved. That design protects liberty. It also creates a vacuum.<\/p>\n

Further investigation expands the scope of inquiry but not the accountability of inaction.<\/p>\n

The complainant: Heard, but powerless<\/h2>\n

The de facto complainant occupies an interesting position in this structure.<\/p>\n

They can:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Set the law in motion.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Approach the Magistrate if the police refuse to register first information report (FIR).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Intervene in anticipatory bail proceedings.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    Seek monitoring or transfer of investigation.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But they cannot:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \n

      Demand arrest.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    2. \n

      Seek custodial interrogation.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    3. \n

      Question the refusal to arrest in any meaningful, enforceable way.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Even in cases where the prosecution itself argues that custody is necessary, the complainant remains a spectator to the ultimate decision whether or not the accused is actually taken into custody.<\/p>\n

      The complainant has a voice. The system ensures it is heard. But it does not ensure it matters.<\/p>\n

      This limitation is not merely practical, but structural. The Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) does not recognise any right in the complainant to seek arrest or custodial interrogation. Nor does it provide a revisional or appellate mechanism against a decision of the investigating agency not to arrest.<\/p>\n

      When inaction becomes strategy<\/h2>\n

      Consider a situation that is far from uncommon in practice.<\/p>\n

      An organised, inter-State network is alleged to be involved in large-scale theft of valuable movable properties, often operating in conjunction with entrenched illegal extraction economies. The police initially decline to register an FIR. It is only upon judicial intervention that the criminal law is formally set in motion.<\/p>\n

      What follows, however, is not momentum but inertia.<\/p>\n

      The investigation proceeds without urgency. Recoveries remain elusive. Arrests remain absent.<\/p>\n

      Yet, in anticipatory bail proceedings, the State adopts a familiar position in a lighter tone: recovery is pending, the offence is serious, and custodial interrogation is necessary.<\/p>\n

      The contradiction is difficult to ignore.<\/p>\n

      Custody is projected as indispensable in court but dispensable in practice.<\/p>\n

      For the complainant, the options are largely symbolic. They may intervene in bail proceedings, oppose relief for accused, state the inaction of investigating agency and reiterate the need for effective investigation. But they cannot seek a direction for arrest. They cannot compel recovery.<\/p>\n

      At best, they may request a monitored investigation as different petition before Magistrate or High Court often reduced to periodic status reports or seek transfer of the case from one agency to another before High Court.<\/p>\n

      What emerges is not merely a failure of investigation, but a structural limitation of the process itself.<\/p>\n

      The law provides remedies against excess. It offers very little against absence.<\/p>\n

      The art of absconding<\/h2>\n

      A commonly offered explanation for such inaction is that the accused is “absconding”. While this may be factually correct in some cases, the assertion itself is rarely subjected to meaningful scrutiny. There is no uniform requirement to demonstrate the steps taken to secure the presence of the accused such as issuance and execution of warrants, proclamation proceedings, or efforts at tracing.<\/p>\n

      In practice, the label of absconding can become a convenient placeholder for investigative stagnation. It explains the absence of arrest without requiring the State to demonstrate corresponding effort. In that sense, it functions less as a conclusion and more as a justification that is seldom tested.<\/p>\n

      The unaddressed side of Article 21<\/h2>\n

      Much of the jurisprudence on arrest is built on Article 21<\/a> of the Constitution<\/a>: The protection of life and personal liberty. Courts have rightly ensured that arrest is not used as a tool of harassment or punishment.<\/p>\n

      But Article 21<\/a> does not belong to the accused alone.<\/p>\n

      In Babubhai<\/span> v. State of Gujarat<\/span><\/a>4<\/sup><\/a> and Pooja Pal<\/span> v. Union of India<\/span><\/a>5<\/sup><\/a>, the Supreme Court recognised that a fair investigation is itself a facet of Article 21<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      A fair investigation is not merely one that avoids illegality. It is one that is effective.<\/p>\n

      An investigation that refuses to act can be as unfair as one that acts excessively.<\/p>\n

      Selective urgency in criminal law<\/h2>\n

      There is also an uncomfortable truth about how arrest operates in practice.<\/p>\n

      In offences that generate public outrage murder, sexual violence arrests are swift. Often immediate.<\/p>\n

      In economic offences or organised criminal activity, especially where networks and influence are involved, urgency tends to dissipate.<\/p>\n

      The speed of arrest in India is not always determined by law. It is often determined by visibility.<\/p>\n

      The structural paradox<\/h2>\n

      The current framework rests on a paradox.<\/p>\n

      1. it distrusts the police enough to regulate arrest,<\/p>\n

      2. but trusts them completely when they choose not to arrest.<\/p>\n

      There is no requirement to justify inaction with the same rigour that is required to justify action.<\/p>\n

      There is no meaningful judicial scrutiny of refusal to arrest, even where such refusal undermines recovery, evidence collection, or the integrity of the investigation.<\/p>\n

      The system fears misuse of power. It does not yet fear non-use of power.<\/p>\n

      Towards accountability without compulsion<\/h2>\n

      The answer is not to empower courts to routinely order arrests. That would undermine the very safeguards the law has built.<\/p>\n

      But the present silence around non-arrest is equally problematic.<\/p>\n

      A middle path is possible:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \n

        Requiring recorded reasons for non-arrest in serious offences.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      2. \n

        Enabling Magistrates to seek justification for investigative inaction.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      3. \n

        Introducing time-bound review of recovery efforts.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      4. \n

        Strengthening the threshold for transfer of investigation in cases of alleged collusion.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      5. \n

        Limited, structured judicial mechanism to address non-arrest in exceptional cases.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        These measures do not compel arrest. They compel accountability.<\/p>\n

        Conclusion<\/h2>\n

        Arrest in India is carefully controlled, constitutionally guarded, and judicially restrained. That is as it should be.<\/p>\n

        But in focusing on the dangers of excessive arrest, the system has overlooked the consequences of deliberate non-arrest especially in cases involving organised crime, economic offences, and institutional collusion.<\/p>\n

        Liberty must be protected from the excess of power. But justice must also be protected from its absence.<\/p>\n

        Between these two lies a space where discretion operates without scrutiny where power is neither exercised nor questioned, and where the complainant is left not without law, but without its movement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

        Advocate, Tamil Nadu. Author can be reached at: advaswinrps@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

        1.<\/a> (2008) 2 SCC 409<\/a> : (2008) 1 SCC (Cri) 440.<\/p>\n

        2.<\/a> (1994) 4 SCC 260<\/a> : 1994 SCC (Cri) 1172.<\/p>\n

        3.<\/a> (2014) 8 SCC 273<\/a> : (2014) 3 SCC (Cri) 449.<\/p>\n

        4.<\/a> (2010) 12 SCC 254<\/a> : (2011) 1 SCC (Cri) 336.<\/p>\n

        5.<\/a> (2016) 3 SCC 135<\/a> : (2016) 1 SCC (Cri) 743.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        by M. Aswin Rome Pon Saravanan*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67011,"featured_media":385707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42503,1191],"tags":[105715,105717,105718,105713,105714,105712,105716,105711,105719],"class_list":["post-385706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-analysis","category-op-ed","tag-bnss-2023-criminal-procedure","tag-complainant-rights-criminal-investigation","tag-criminal-justice-accountability-india","tag-custodial-interrogation-jurisprudence","tag-fair-investigation-article-21","tag-non-arrest-criminal-law-india","tag-police-discretion-arrest-powers","tag-right-to-seek-arrest-in-criminal-investigation","tag-scc-criminal-law-analysis"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Missing Right to Seek Arrest in Criminal Investigation | SCC Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An analysis of police discretion, non-arrest, custodial interrogation and the complainant\u2019s limited role in criminal investigations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/06\/01\/missing-right-seek-arrest-criminal-investigation-india\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Missing Right to Seek Arrest in Criminal Investigation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An analysis of police discretion, non-arrest, custodial interrogation and the complainant\u2019s limited role in criminal investigations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/06\/01\/missing-right-seek-arrest-criminal-investigation-india\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SCC Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/scc.online\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-01T03:30:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/right-to-seek-arrest-in-criminal-investigation.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"886\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"590\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Missing Right to Seek Arrest in Criminal Investigation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/01\\\/missing-right-seek-arrest-criminal-investigation-india\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/01\\\/missing-right-seek-arrest-criminal-investigation-india\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84e42bab48238baf12c7e33b3d9761fe\"},\"headline\":\"The Missing Right to Seek Arrest in Criminal Investigation\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-01T03:30:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/01\\\/missing-right-seek-arrest-criminal-investigation-india\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1510,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/01\\\/missing-right-seek-arrest-criminal-investigation-india\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/right-to-seek-arrest-in-criminal-investigation.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"BNSS 2023 criminal procedure\",\"complainant rights criminal investigation\",\"criminal justice accountability India\",\"custodial interrogation jurisprudence\",\"fair investigation Article 21\",\"non-arrest criminal law India\",\"police discretion arrest powers\",\"right to seek arrest in criminal investigation\",\"SCC criminal law analysis\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Op Eds\",\"OP. 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