The
Hon’ble Supreme Court in order to check or obviate the possibility of misuses
of an arrest warrant, issued guidelines to be adopted in all cases where
non-bailable warrants are issued by the Courts.
The Hon’ble Supreme Court in Raghuvansh Dewanchand Bhasin V State of
Maharashtra.16 issued the following guidelines to be adopted in
all cases where non-bailable warrants are issued by the Courts –
(a) All the High Court
shall ensure that the Subordinate Courts use printed and machine numbered Form
No.2 for issuing warrant of arrest and each such form is duly accounted for;
(b) Before authenticating, the Court must ensure
that complete particulars of the case are mentioned on the warrant;
(c) The Presiding Judge of the Court (or
responsible officer specially authorized for the purpose in case of High
Courts) issuing the warrant should put his full and legible signatures on the process,
also ensuring that Court seal bearing complete particulars of the Court is
prominently endorsed thereon;
(d) The Court must ensure that warrant is
directed to a particular police officer (or authority) and, unless intended to
be open-ended, it must be returnable whether executed or unexecuted, on or
before the date specified therein;
(e) Every Court must maintain a register (in the
format given below), in which each warrant of arrest issued must be entered
chronologically and the serial number of such entry reflected on the top right
hand of the process;
(f) No warrant of arrest shall be issued without
being entered in the register mentioned above and the concerned Court shall
periodically check/monitor the same to confirm that every such process is
always returned to the Court with due report and placed on the record of the
concerned case;
(g) A register similar to the one in clause (e)
supra shall be maintained at the concerned police station. The Station House
Officer of the concerned Police Station shall ensure that each warrant of
arrest issued by the Court, when received is duly entered in the said register
and is formally entrusted to a responsible officer for execution;
(h) Ordinarily, the Courts should not give a long
time for return or execution of warrants, as experience has shown that warrants
are prone to misuse if they remain in control of executing agencies for long;
(i) On the date fixed for the return of the
warrant, the Court must insist upon a compliance report on the action taken
thereon by the Station House Officer of the concerned Police Station or the
Officer In-charge of the concerned agency;
(j) The report on such warrants must be clear,
cogent and legible and duly forwarded by a superior officer, so as to
facilitate fixing of responsibility in case of misuse;
(k) In the event of warrant for execution beyond
jurisdiction of the Court issuing it, procedure laid down in sections 78 and 79
of the code must be strictly and scrupulously followed; and
(l) In the event of cancellation of the arrest
warrant by the Court, the order cancelling warrant shall be recorded in the
case file and the register maintained. A copy thereof shall be sent to the concerned
authority, requiring the process to be returned unexecuted forthwith. The date
of receipt of the unexecuted warrant will be entered in the aforesaid
registers. A copy of such order shall also be supplied to the accused.
