Guidelines For Arresting Judicial Officers
In Delhi Judicial Service Assn. vs. State of Gujarat, (1991) 4 SCC 406, the court issued the following guidelines to be followed by the State Governments and the High Courts while effecting the arrest of a subordinate judicial officer:
- If a judicial officer is to be arrested for some offence, it should be done under intimation to the District Judge or the High Court, as the case may be.
- If the facts and the circumstances necessitate the immediate arrest of a judicial officer of the subordinate judiciary, a technical or formal arrest may be effected.
- The fact of such arrest should be immediately communicated to the District and Sessions Judge of the district concerned and the Chief Justice of the High Court.
- The judicial officer so arrested shall not be taken to the police station without prior order or directions of the District and Sessions Judge of the concerned district, if available.
- Immediate facilities shall be provided to the judicial officer for communication with his family members, legal advisers, and judicial officers, including the District and Sessions Judge.
- No statement of a judicial officer who is under arrest shall be recorded, nor any panchnama be drawn up, nor any medical test be conducted, except in the presence of the legal advisor of the judicial officer concerned or another judicial officer of equal or higher rank, if available.
- There should be no handcuffing of a judicial officer. However, if violent resistance to arrest is offered or there is imminent need to effect physical arrest in order to avert danger to life and limb, the person resisting arrest may be overpowered and handcuffed.
In such a case, immediate report shall be made to the District and Sessions Judge concerned and also to the Chief Justice of the High Court.
