Police and Criminal Justice The police system

A man is picked up outside a Mumbai local station at 11 p.m. and is not seen by his family for two days. Everyone has a view on what the police may and may not do to him, but very few people can name the rule that decides it. The police are the first institution a crime meets and the last one most citizens ever see up close. This topic asks who the police are, what the law lets them do, and what happens to the law when they cross the line.

In two minutes

The police are the gateway of the criminal justice system: they register the crime, investigate it and arrest the accused, but every power they hold is fenced by the Constitution (Articles 20(3), 21 and 22) and by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023, and abuse of that power attracts criminal, constitutional and human-rights liability.

The rest of this chapter

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