The Allahabad High Court has ruled that police officers who fail to disclose specific grounds of arrest in writing will face suspension and departmental action. Declaring such arrests illegal, the court said mere form-filling without substance violates constitutional rights and due process.
The Allahabad High Court has passed a strong order stating that police officers who fail to clearly mention the grounds of arrest in the arrest memo will be treated as committing serious misconduct and must face strict action, including suspension.
While allowing a habeas corpus petition, the High Court ordered the immediate release of the petitioner and made it clear that any police officer in Uttar Pradesh who does not properly disclose the specific grounds of arrest in the arrest memo will be liable for departmental proceedings.
The petition was filed by Umang Rastogi and another person, challenging the legality of Rastogi’s arrest. The division bench of Justice Siddharth and Justice Jai Krishna Upadhyay strongly criticised the casual approach adopted by the police while making arrests.
The court observed,
“Empty compliance of the law by merely filling out forms without substance amounts to a dereliction of duty.”
The bench further underlined that police officers cannot mechanically complete arrest formalities without actually following the law. Stressing the constitutional and statutory safeguards available to an arrested person, the court said,
“It is high time that the police officials, who are not complying the requirements of the arrest memo and violating the constitutional mandate provided under Article 22(1) of the constitution of India and further violating section 50 and 50A criminal procedure code (CrPC), which is now section 47, 48 and Bhartiya Nyaya Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) should be sternly dealt with,”
the court observed.
The High Court also directed that a copy of its order must be sent to the Director General of Police (DGP), Uttar Pradesh, so that necessary instructions can be issued across the state police force.
The case arose from the arrest of Umang Rastogi, who was taken into custody on December 26, 2025, from Haldwani in Uttarakhand.
He was later produced before a remand magistrate in Gautam Buddh Nagar on December 27, 2025. The petitioners alleged that the arrest was illegal because the mandatory written grounds of arrest were never provided to Rastogi, which is a clear violation of law.
When Rastogi’s lawyer sought his release on this ground before the remand magistrate, the application was rejected, despite the serious procedural lapse. Aggrieved by this, the petitioners approached the Allahabad High Court through a habeas corpus petition.
After examining the records, the High Court found that although the investigating officer used the correct format for the arrest memo, the most crucial column relating to the “grounds of arrest” was left incomplete.
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The sub-inspector merely mentioned that the accused was informed about the offence and the sections applied, and that his father was informed over the phone.
Taking serious exception to this, the court clarified that merely informing the accused about legal sections is not sufficient. The law requires that the police must disclose the detailed reasons and material showing how the accused is involved in the crime.
The High Court relied heavily on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Mihir Rajesh Shah v. State of Maharashtra, which clearly mandates that the grounds of arrest must be supplied to the arrested person in writing.
The court reiterated that this safeguard is not a formality but a fundamental right flowing from Article 22(1) of the Constitution.
In its judgment dated January 22, 2026, the Allahabad High Court declared that Rastogi’s arrest and the subsequent remand order dated December 27, 2025, were illegal, null, and void. The court ordered his immediate release and warned that police officers who repeat such violations in future will face strict disciplinary action.
This ruling is expected to have wide implications across Uttar Pradesh, as it sends a clear message that failure to follow arrest procedures will no longer be tolerated and that constitutional rights of citizens must be strictly respected by law enforcement agencies.
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