Supreme Court considers reference of provision to furnish reason during arrests

📌 Summary:

• The Supreme Court indicated that the Meghalaya government's appeal against the grant of bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi (accused in the Meghalaya honeymoon murder case) may be referred to a larger Bench

• Reason: conflicting decisions by coordinate Benches on whether the grounds of arrest must necessarily be furnished to an accused in writing

• A Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Shree Chandrashekhar was hearing the State's appeal against the Meghalaya High Court's June 29 order, which upheld a Shillong trial court's bail on the ground that police failed to effectively communicate the grounds of arrest

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 Polity — Article 22(1) safeguards on arrest, evolving jurisprudence on written grounds of arrest, and the mechanism of larger-Bench references to resolve conflicting coordinate-Bench rulings.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• Article 22(1) guarantees that no person who is arrested shall be detained without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds of arrest

• Conflicting decisions of Benches of equal strength (coordinate Benches) are resolved by reference to a larger Bench

🔑 Key Term: Coordinate Bench — a Bench of the same judge-strength; one coordinate Bench cannot overrule another, so conflicts between them require a larger-Bench reference.