judicial custody

When investigation cannot be completed within 24 hours of arrest, the accused is produced before a magistrate, who may authorise detention either in police custody (the accused stays with the police for interrogation) or in judicial custody (the accused is lodged in jail and the police can question him only with the court’s leave).

Under the BNSS, police custody may not exceed fifteen days in all, which may be taken in whole or in parts during the first forty or sixty days of the detention period. The total detention during investigation is capped at 60 or 90 days, depending on the offence; if the charge-sheet is not filed by then, the accused gets a right to default bail.

Example

After the first five days with the police, the magistrate remanded the accused to judicial custody and he was sent to the central prison.

In Indian law

• Section 187 BNSS (old s.167 CrPC): remand and limits on detention
• CBI v. Anupam J. Kulkarni, 1992 INSC 154: limits on police custody during remand

See also

police custody · remand · default bail · arrest

Read more in the study notes

• Arrest: concept, procedure, safeguards, proclamation and handcuffing (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita)
• Confessions: meaning, forms, voluntariness and confessions to the police (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)