Goa, Nov. 6 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the constitutional requirement to produce an arrested person before a magistrate within 24 hours begins from the moment of detention and not from the time the police formally records the arrest.

A Bench comprising Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S Chandurkar held that no artificial distinction can be drawn between 'arrest' and 'detention' while interpreting Article 22(2) of the Constitution. It observed that allowing the police to exclude the period of detention preceding the formal arrest would violate the constitutional mandate.

"The view that 24 hours begin only from the formal arrest is contrary to the constitutional mandate of Article 22(2) and Section 56 of the BNSS," the Benc...