Q. With reference to the safeguards provided by Indian laws for arresting women, consider the following statements:
1.Women cannot be arrested after sunset and before sunrise unless there are exceptional circumstances.
2.Indian law mandates that the arrest of a woman should be conducted by a male police officer in the presence of a female constable.
Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?
Explanations –
Statement 1 is correct. Section 46(4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and its corresponding provision in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, states that women cannot be arrested during this time period unless there are exceptional circumstances. In such cases, prior written permission from a magistrate is required, and the arrest must be conducted by a woman police officer.
Statement 2 is incorrect. Indian law does not mandate that a male police officer must arrest a woman. Instead, it specifies that arrests of women should generally be conducted by female police officers. If circumstances require otherwise, male officers may arrest a woman, but they must not touch her unless absolutely necessary.
Source: The Hindu
