The Supreme Court in Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar 2014 (8) SCC 273 had held that in all cases where the arrest of a person is not required under Section 41(1) Cr.P.C. the police officer is required to issue notice directing the accused to appear before him at a specified place and time. While issuing guidelines, it was also observed that the failure to comply with the directions issued by it shall apart from rendering the police officers concerned liable for departmental action, they shall also be liable to be punished for contempt of court to be instituted before High Court having territorial jurisdiction.
Following this, various High Courts have initiated contempt proceedings against Police Officer for violation of ‘Arnesh Kumar’ Guidelines. Following are some of them which resulted in conviction and sentencing of the police officers:
Ramadugu Omkar Varma v. Ashok Naik – Telangana High Court convicted a Police Officer for contempt and sentenced him to jail for a period of four weeks.
In Re Chandan Kumar – Allahabad High Court sentenced a cop to undergo simple imprisonment for 14 days and fine of Rs. 1000/-
Rakesh Kumar vs Vijayanta Arya – Delhi High Court sentenced a police officer to 1-day imprisonment.
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