Kerala High Court strikes down the guideline treating production of an arrested person after 5 pm as exceptional

27 October 2026

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court made up of Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V and Justice K.V. Jayakumar has struck down State guidelines on producing arrested persons before Judicial Officers. The case was Adv. P.S. Subeesh v. State of Kerala, decided on a writ petition in the nature of a public interest litigation. The challenged clauses said accused persons should as far as possible be produced during working hours of 10 am to 5 pm, and that production after 5 pm was permissible only in exceptional circumstances. The Court held that the 24-hour limit in Article 22(2) of the Constitution and in Sections 57 and 58 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 is an outer limit and does not replace the separate duty to produce an arrested person without unnecessary delay. It said phrases such as 'as far as possible' and 'exceptional circumstances' could in practice discourage production after 5 pm even when it is urgently needed, and that an executive protocol cannot dilute constitutional or statutory safeguards. The requirement of prior intimation to the Magistrate for production after 5 pm was, however, upheld.