Supreme court hearing the appeal of case Siddharth vs State of UP, 2021 filed by the appellant and 83 others against the dismissal of anticipatory bail application by High court.

In the present case, FIR was registered seven year ago which consist the name of appellant and 83 others. Appellant contended that he submitted himself for investigation of police and now as the chargesheet is ready to be filed before the court. The order of his arrest was issued against which he filed the application of anticipatory bail before the High court, which was dismissed on the ground that section 170 of CRPC require the custodial presence of accused at the time of filing of chargesheet.

Against this order he appealed before the apex court. This case is before the two judge bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Hrishikesh Roy.

They observed that in this case the trial court held that it is necessary to take the person in custody when the chargesheet is filed before the court in view of section 170 of CRPC.

The bench held that it’s not mandatory in view of section 170 of CRPC to arrest each and every person accused in accused in case at the time of filing of chargesheet.

The court said that, “the personal liberty is the constitutional mandate under article 21 of Indian constitution. The necessity of arrest arise when there are chance that accuse will escape or temper the evidence or threaten the witness or in case of heinous crime or where custodial investigation necessary in case”.

The bench said that, “where the arrest can be made, it’s not necessary that it should be made”.

If arrest will be made in casual manner than this will affect the self esteem of person. Where the accused is ready to corporate with police in investigation, there should not be any compulsion on police to arrest that accused.

The trial courts insisting on formality of arrest before the filing of chargesheet is wrong and against the object of section 170 of CRPC, the bench said.