Illegal detention without due process violates Article 21 of the Constitution, warranting compensation for the affected individual.

JUDGMENT :

P. B. Bajanthri, J.

In the instant petition, the petitioner has prayed for following reliefs:-

“(a). For issuance of an appropriate writ in the nature of Habeas Corpus directing the Respondents to release the petitioner forthwith from District Jail, Haipur, Vaishali by holding the detention of the petitioner to be wholly illegal as he is on Bail in all cases in which he had been remanded.

(b). For issuance of an appropriate Writ holding and declaring the continuation of the detention of the Petitioner in district Jail, Hajipur, Vaishali since 21.09.2024 on the basis of Production Warrant in connetion with Mukhdumpur P.S. Case No. 33/23 and Hajipur, complaint Case No. 3891 (C) of 2022 to be wholly illegal, without any authorization and without any justification.

(c). For issuance of any other order/orders or relief/reliefs for which the petitioner may found to be entitled in the facts and circumstances of the case.”

2. Gist of the matter is that petitioner was alleged to have involved in five criminal cases which are narrated in para five of the personal affidavit filed on behalf of the I.G. - Prison and correctional services, Government of Bihar, Patna-cum-Secretary Home and it reads as under:-

3. Perusal of the aforementioned table, it is evident that in the first three cases he was released on bail on 21-09-2024. However, the same has not been given effect to by the prisons department in releasing the petitioner. Before he was released on bail on 21.09.2024, jurisdictional Magistrate issued a body warrant of the petitioner vide summon/notice dated 13.09.2024, for production of petitioner on 26.09.2024. Petitioner has the benefit of bail on 21.09.2024. Therefore, it was bounden duty of the concerned officials of the prisons department to release the petitioner on 21.09.2024 instead of detaining him under custody for the reasons that as on 21.09.2024, petitioner’s body warrant was not executed and it was required to be executed only on 26.09.2024. Prisons department should have sought necessary modification of the body warrant summon/notice dated 13.09.2024 to the extent that petitioner was granted bail in other cases on 21.09.2024. While contending that, he was no more in the custody after releasing him. However, the petitioner was illegally detained between 21.09.2024 to 07.10.2024. On 07.10.2024, he was remanded to judicial custody and so also on 25.10.2014 in the last two cases of the table. It is to be noted that the illegality could not be ‘washed away or wished away’ merely there is a remand on subsequent day. In the present case, petitioner was illegally under custody for about 16 days and his freedom was curtailed for the above period. Depriving an individual of his personal liberty without following the process of law amounts to illegal detention. This includes unlawful imprisonment, continuous restraint of a person at a place or restraining a person from reaching a place. It is a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution.

4. Bail order should be furnished to the accused in prison on the same day of pronouncement and released him or her at the earliest as held by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of [Re: To issue certain guidelines regarding inadequacies and deficiencies in criminal trials], reported in (2023) 12 SCC 688. The prisons officials have violated fundamental rights of the petitioner and internal communication dated 25.05.2018 vide Annexure R4/G of the personal affidavit. Prima facie the prisons department have illegally detained the petitioner