LANDMARK CASE

D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal

(1997) 1 SCC 416 · Supreme Court of India · Criminal procedure

At a glance

Citation: (1997) 1 SCC 416
Court: Supreme Court of India
Area of law: Criminal procedure
In one line: The Court laid down eleven requirements, including arrest memos, informing a relative, medical examination and the right to meet a lawyer.

1 Facts

A letter about custodial deaths was treated as a writ petition.

2 Issue

What safeguards must police follow when arresting and detaining a person?

3 What the court decided

The Court laid down eleven requirements, including arrest memos, informing a relative, medical examination and the right to meet a lawyer.

4 Why it matters

Many of these safeguards are now in the criminal procedure code.

5 Think about it

Which D.K. Basu safeguards can you find in today's BNSS?

6 Analyse it yourself

Read the full judgment from an official source or a law database, then brief it in seven steps: facts, issues, arguments, decision, ratio, obiter and significance. Always check the citation before you rely on it.

7 More cases on Criminal procedure

Arnab Manoranjan Goswami v. Union of India (2020) 14 SCC 12
Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (2014) 8 SCC 273
Gian Singh v. State of Punjab (2012) 10 SCC 303
Gideon v. Wainwright 372 U.S. 335 (1963)
Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia v. State of Punjab (1980) 2 SCC 565
Joginder Kumar v. State of Uttar Pradesh (1994) 4 SCC 260

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