Instruction No 01/2025 Guidelines for Arrest and Bail
CBIC has issued Instruction No 01/2025 Guidelines for Arrest and Bail under which Grounds of arrest in written is mandatory. This instruction has been issued with refrence to the recent judgement by Delhi High Court in case of Kshitij Ghildiyal Vs Director General of GST Intelligence, Delhi (Dated 16-12-2024). It clarified that when someone is arrested, the authorities must give the arrested person the Grounds of Arrest in writing.
The differnce between Ground of Arrest and Reasons for Arrest are as under:
Reasons for Arrest are general and apply to anyone being arrested. it includes preventing further crimes, ensuring proper investigation , stopping evidence tempering or preventing threats to witnesses.
Ground of Arrests are specific and personal to the person being arrested. They must explain exactly why that person is being arrested based on the evidence the investigating officer has. This allows the arrested person to defend themselves and apply bail if needed.
Based on the earlier two supreme court Judgements
Pankaj Bansal Vs Union of India (October 2023)
Prabir purkayastha Vs State (NCT of Delhi) (May 2024) Both the cases highlighted the need to clearly explain the specific reasons for arrest in writing.
Before this ruling, the GST Department has updated Instruction No 02/2022-23, Now it is mandatory for officer to :
- Explain the grounds of arrest to the person
- Give Written copy of these grounds as an attachment to the Arrest Memo.
- Take a signed acknowledgement from arrested person confirming they received the written grounds.
