Courts Can Order House Arrest Under Section 167

Courts can order house arrest under Section 167 in selected cases: Supreme Court.

Concerned over the increasing rush of inmates in the jails, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that it is up to the courts to consider ordering the accused to be arrested under the CrPC for house arrest in select cases.

The Supreme Court said that in cases after conviction, the legislature is free to consider arresting the accused in some cases.

The apex court said that the concept of detention can be adopted while referring to the expenditure on congestion in jails and care of prisons.

A bench of Justices UU Lalit and KM Joseph said, “We can tell about the age, health status and history of the accused, nature of the crime, other needs to be detained, such as standards and conditions of imposition of detention.”

Our comment is that under Section (CrPC) 167, courts can order detention in select cases. Under Section 167 of CrPC, if the investigation is not completed within 24 hours, the court can order custody.

The verdict of the apex court came in the Bhima Koregaon violence case on the petition of Gautam Navlakha, who challenged the Bombay High Court order.

The High Court refused to grant him bail on the ground that under the law, the NIA has not filed a charge sheet within a specified time.

Gautam Navlakha had demanded compulsory bail on the basis of non-filing of charge sheet within the stipulated period in the law.

The Supreme Court rejected Navlakha’s plea, saying that the house arrest cannot be considered an order under Section 167 of the CrPC.

That is, this period was not considered by the Supreme Court to be a period of detention under Section 167 in order to get bail if the charge sheet is not filed within the time limit prescribed in the law.

The court said that the concept of house arrest under section 167 of the CrPC has not been considered by any court, including this court.

Now that the matter has come to light and looking at all the aspects of it, our view is that custody comes somewhere in the house arrest which is a part of Section 167.

Navlakha had sought bail on the grounds of non-filing of the charge sheet within the period of 90 days fixed in the law.

Navlakha had also made the grounds of bail for not filing the charge sheet within a period of 90 days, adding to the detention in the house arrest for 34 days.

On the basis of the data, the court has also mentioned the rush of inmates in the jails and the government’s expenditure on maintenance of the jails.

The court said that in 2019 alone, the number of inmates in jails increased by 18,86,092.