Police's Ignorance Of DGP Circular Unjustifiable: Allahabad High Court Declares Arrest Illegal Over Non-Supply Of Grounds

Declaring the arrest of two persons-petitioners as illegal over non-supply of an arrest ground to them, a bench of Justice Siddharth and Justice Jai Krishna Upadhyay stressed that ignorance of law cannot be a valid excuse for violating the same.

The order was passed as the bench noted that the arrest violated the circular issued by the DGP as well as the law laid down by the Apex Court in Mihir Rajesh vs. State of Maharashtra 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 1066 and the HC in the judgment of Umang Rastogi And Another vs. State Of U.P. And 3 Others 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 40.

The bench thus ALLOWED the Habeas Corpus writ petition filed by Anoop Kumar and another and also set aside the remand order passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mainpuri.

BRIEFLY PUT, The petitioners approached the HC through Advocate Raghav Dev Garg seeking release from illegal custody. It was submitted that the petitioners were arrested without being informed of the grounds of arrest.

It was highlighted that on February 3, 2026, the Director General of Police had issued a circular in compliance with the Umang Rastogi judgment, which is applicable to all police officers effecting arrests across Uttar Pradesh.

During the hearing, AGA Prem Shankar Prasad submitted that the information about the July 2025 circular of the DGP, which clearly provided for the new memorandum of arrest, was not in the knowledge of Respondent No. 3 (the concerned SHO). The State argued that the officer had therefore committed an error due to this lack of knowledge.

The High Court, however, refused to accept this explanation as it observed that the argument of the AGA was not justified.

In view of these facts, the Court held the petitioners' arrest illegal and allowed their plea.

The bench ordered the release of the petitioners forthwith. However, it clarified that respondents were free to proceed against the petitioners in accordance with the law.