Police Arresting Accused After Filing Chargesheet & Court's Cognizance Makes No Sense : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has deprecated the practice of police arresting an accused, who was not arrested during investigation after the Court has taken cognizance of the chargesheet.

When the Court was informed that such a practice was being followed by the Uttar Pradesh police, it expressed surprise, terming the practice "unusual" . The Court said that such a practice does not make any sense.

A bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan observed :

"The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would submit that there is a practice in the State of Uttar Pradesh that arrest is effected after the charge-sheet is filed and the Court takes cognizance of the charge-sheet. We do not propose to say anything as regards in this unusual practice except that it makes no sense."

The bench addeed :

"We are of the view that once the investigation is over and charge-sheet is filed then the accused should be asked to appear before the Court concerned and should furnish bail to the satisfaction of the trial court.

If at all, the Investigating Officer wanted to interrogate the petitioner, he could have arrested him during the course of the investigation itself. Now there is no point in making a formal arrest."

The bench made these observations while granting bail to a person in a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. It noted that the petitioner was never arrested during the investigation and that chargesheet has been filed, upon which the trial court has taken cognizance. In this backdrop, bench allowed bail to the petitioner.

In Siddharth v State of Uttar Pradesh(2021), the Supreme Court held that there was no obligation on the part of the police to arrest an accused at the time of filing of charge-sheet. In Satender Kumar Antil vs. CBI(2021), the Court issued guidelines to prevent the routine arrest of accused persons, who were not arrested during investigation or had cooperated with the investigation, upon the filing of the charge-sheet.

Later, on many occassions, the Supreme Court has expressed anguish at trial courts and investigating agencies not following the judgments in Siddharth and Satender Kumar Antil.

In Tarsem Lal v. Directorate of Enforcement (2024), the Supreme Court held that the ED cannot arrest an accused once the trial court has taken cognizance of a the chargesheet.

Case : Musheer Alam v State of Uttar Pradesh

Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 83

Click here to read the order