An accused person can be remanded to custody for a period beyond 15 days of his arrest in the absence of a police report commonly known as charge-sheet under Sec. 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

H. R. KHANNA, C.J. :- The short question which arises for determination in this case is whether an accused person can be remanded to custody for a period beyond 15 days of his arrest in the absence of a police report commonly known as charge-sheet under Sec. 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as the Code). According to the petitioners' counsel unless a charge-sheet is submitted a criminal court has no power to remand an accused to custody after 15 days of his arrest and he in such an event must be released on bail. As against that the submission made on behalf of the State is that an accused be remanded to custody by the Court having jurisdiction in the matter under Section 344 of the Code and it is not obligatory to release the accused on bail after 15 days of his arrest even though the charge-sheet has not been put in the Court. The question has arisen in the following circumstances :-

The dead body of Sarjeevan Prakash alias Kaka was found in the fields in the jurisdiction of Timarpur police post on the morning of September 5, 1969. Ajit Singh and Shankar petitioners were arrested by the police on September 17, 1969 under Section 302, read with S.(34-Ed.) of the Indian Penal Code in connection with the murder of Sarjeevan Prakash. The two petitioners were produced before the Magistrate on September 18, 1969 when they were remanded to police custody till September 25, 1969. Further orders remanding the accused to judicial custody were made from time to time till November 15, 1969, when another order for remand was made.

An application for releasing the two petitioners on bail was rejected by the learned Magistrate on October 14, 1969. An application for the release of the petitioners was then made to the learned Sessions Judge who rejected the application by his order dated November 1, 1969. The petitioners then approached this Court. One of the contentions advanced on behalf of the petitioners was that after the expiry of the period of remand, for which the limit prescribed by Section 167 of the Code is 15 days in the whole, no further order for remand could be passed unless a charge-sheet under Section 173 of the Code was forwarded to the Magistrate empowered to take cognizance of the offence. One of us (Hardy, J.) then found that there was a serious conflict among the different High Courts on the above aspect of the matter. He, accordingly, expressed the view that the matter should be decided by a larger Bench. The case was then placed before a Division Bench consisting of Hardy and Misra, JJ., who, in view of the sharp divergence of opinion, expressed the view that it should be decided by a Full Bench.

2. Before dealing further with the matter it would be convenient to reproduce Section 167, relevant part of Section 173 and Section 344 of the Code :

"167. (1) Whenever any person is arrested and detained in custody, and it appears that the investigation cannot be completed within the period of twenty-four hours fixed by Section 61, and there are grounds for believing that the accusation or information is well founded, the officer-in-charge of the police station or the police officer making the investigation if he is not below the rank of sub-inspector shall forthwith transmit to the nearest Magistrate a copy of the entries in the diary hereinafter prescribed relating to the case, and shall at the same time forward the accused to such Magistrate.

(2) The Magistrate to whom an accused person is forwarded under this section may, whether he has or has not jurisdiction to try the case, from time to time authorise the detention of the accused in such custody as such Magistrate thinks fit, for a term not exceeding fifteen days in the whole. If he has not jurisdiction to try the case or commit it for trial, and considers further detention unnecessary, he may order the accused to be forwarded to a Magistrate having such jurisdiction :

Provided that no Magistrate of the third class, and no Magistrat