The Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees right to life to every person in India. This right to life and personal liberty can be taken away from the person only by procedure established by law. There had been a lot of debate regarding the procedure established by law but in the case of Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India AIR 1978 SC 597 it has been settled for once and for all and it had been held that the procedure should be 'just, fair and reasonable'. The concept of arrest is one such procedure wherein personal liberty can be taken away by the law.

The concept of arrest is basically the act of balancing between individual and societal interest; as every individual has right to personal liberty and societal interest lies in proper investigation, conviction and punishment to the accused. Therefore, in order to balance both the interests, the arrested person is conferred with certain kind of rights which are enshrined in the Constitution of India and various other statutes like Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 etc.

The basic principle of Indian Justice System is that a person is presumed to be innocent unless proven guilty, and then the question arises as to how the innocent person is subject to arrest. In order to resolve this conundrum, a test has been adopted wherein the police arrests a person as a matter of necessity and not right. The accused is subjected to arrest if the offence committed by him/her is of grave nature and if such person is not arrested then it will be a threat to the society, he might tamper the evidences or threaten the witnesses or abscond; in such cases accused is arrested as a matter of routine and not right. In the case of DK Basu v. State of West Bengal AIR 1997 SC 610 the Supreme Court held that regarding arrest the question is not whether the arrest shall be caused or not, as in certain circumstances arrest becomes essential. The important factor is that arrest should not been made arbitrarily and there should be some transparency and accountability in matter of arrest. Thus, the issues on arrest are more about laying down guidelines in matters of arrest and also about laying down guidelines for requirement of transparency and accountability. The guidelines laid down in this case have been incorporated in the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 by amendment in the year 2008.

The rights of the arrested person incorporated in various statutes and the Constitution of India are as follows-

1) Right to Remain Silent-

The 'right to silence' is a doctrine of common law which means that a person cannot be presumed to be guilty if he refuses to answer or remains silent upon a question put forth by the police or Court. This doctrine has also been upheld by the Supreme Court in the case of Nandini Sathpathy v. PL Dani AIR 1978 SC 1025 in light of Article 20(3) of the Constitution.

2) Right to Know the Grounds of Arrest:

The Article 22(2) of the Indian Constitution confers the fundamental right upon the arrested person to be informed the grounds of his arrest. This fundamental right has been given the practicality by the provision of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. The Section 50(1) of CrPC states that every police officer arresting the person without warrant shall inform such person the particulars of his offence. If the arrest without warrant has been made by the subordinate officer then such officer shall show such person the order of officer and substance of the offence for which he is being arrested [Section 55 CrPC]. Furthermore, if the arrest has been made with the warrant then the police officer shall show the warrant of arrest to the arrested person as enshrined under Section 75 of CrPC.

3) Duties of Police Officer While making an arrest:

According to Section 41-B of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 the police officer making an arrest shall bear an accurate, visible and clear identification of his name, prepare a memorandum of arrest which shall be attested by atleast one witness and also signed by the arrested person. The arrested person has a right to inform his friends or relative regarding the arrest.

4) Right to meet an advocate of his choice during interrogation:

According to Section 41D of CrPC and Article 22(1) of the Constitution the arrested person has a right to meet the advocate of legal practitioner of his choice during an interrogation.

5) Right to be presented before Magistrate within 24hr of arrest:

According to Article 22(2) of the Constitution, Section 57 and Section 76 of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 the arrested person shall be presented before the nearest Magistrate within 24hr of his arrest.

6) Health and Safety of Arrested Person:

According to Section 55A of CrPC which has been inserted by the 2009 Amendment Act, states that it shall be the duty of the person having the custody of accused to take reasonable care of health and safety of the arrested person. The Code also mandates that the medical examination of arrested person shall be done every time before producing him to the Magistrate from the police custody, so as to ascertain that there was no averment in the medical condition of the arrested person.

7) Arrest of a Woman:

According to Section 46 of CrPC the arrest of a woman shall be made by female officer and if the circumstances otherwise require then the male officer shall not touch the body of woman while making the arrest. Furthermore, woman shall not be arrested after sunset and before sunrise, and if the exception circumstances exist then the woman police officer shall make a written report and obtain the permission from the Judicial Magistrate First Class for such situation.

8) Right to be safe from unnecessary restrain-

According to Section 49 of the CrPC the arrested person shall not be subjected to more restrain than required for prevention of escape of such arrested person.

The aforementioned are the basic rights available to the arrested person some of which are enshrined in the Constitution of the India as the fundamental rights and some in the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. The purpose of such statutory recognition is to mandate its application. The violation of any of the rights attracts the liability upon the authority and thereby strict compliance is important.