The 24 Hour for Production of Accused Runs from the Time of Curtailment of his Liberty

In Sujit Das v. Union of India [2026: INSC: 1196], the Supreme Court of India delivered a landmark judgment on personal liberty. The Court held that the 24-hour constitutional deadline to produce an arrested person before a magistrate begins the exact moment their liberty is effectively curtailed through detention, rather than when the law enforcement agency officially logs a “formal arrest“.

The Supreme Court Guidelines on Arrest/ Detention

The Supreme Guidelines, to be distributed to the High Courts and State’s Police establishments in the country, are as follows:

1. the 24 hours timeline would commence from the date and time of detention of the person detained when his liberty stands curtailed and not from the time of his formal arrest;
2. in case, such detention continues beyond 24 hours before the person is produced before a magistrate, he shall be forthwith released from custody;
3. while computing the 24 hours deadline, no other time period is permitted to be excluded therefrom except the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of the magistrate;
4. the decisions of the Orissa High Court in Aryaman Pattnayak, Madras High Court in Kannan and Kerala High Court in Arun K. Thomas do not lay down the correct law;
5. the detaining authority should keep in mind not only the 24 hours deadline but also ensure that such detention should not extend beyond a reasonable period within the 24 hours period considering the circumstances of the case in terms of Section 58 BNSS (Section 57 CrPC);
6. at the time of production, the magistrate is duty bound to record the actual date and time of detention of the person produced before him when his liberty stood curtailed and examine whether the 24 hours deadline has been complied with or not from the time of such detention. If there is breach of the 24 hours deadline, the concerned person shall be released forthwith from detention;
7. the magistrate shall also examine at the time of production whether the detention of the person produced, though is within the time frame of 24 hours, has exceeded the period which can be construed to be reasonable in the circumstances of the case. If he is satisfied that detention in custody has been for a longer period than what is reasonable, he may decline remand.

In Conclusion

The Supreme Court emphatically rejected the argument that a person can be detained for questioning without being considered “arrested”. The Bench declared that the Constitution does not recognize any form of detention divorced from arrest.