The word custody means guardianship of something or someone. In civil services, custody refers to the imprisonment of a particular person who has committed a crime.
Police Custody
In police custody the police have the authority to punish the accused. A suspected person is arrested in crime and the police collects more information in case of cognizable offence. The accused is lodged in the lock-up of a police station. Another aim of the police custody is to prevent evidence from destruction. During this period, police officer who is in charge can interrogate the arrested person. Without anyone’s permission, be it a Judge or Magistrate. According to section 57 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 the accused stays in the lockup for 24 hours unless he/ she is proven innocent and without the order of magistrate it cannot exceed more than 24 hours.
It is the magistrate who decides whether he/she should stay in police custody or be remanded to judicial custody. Police custody can be extended for a maximum period of 15 days.
Judicial custody
According to Section 167(2) in The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, when police officer presents the arrested person in front of Magistrate, Magistrate can order to send him to police custody or judicial custody.
In judicial custody, Magistrate will have the custody of the arrested person and he will be sent to jail.
Provisions for judicial custody
In India, custody is governed by section 167 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. According to this section, time period of custody is given as follows:
Custody for not more than 15 days
When arrested person is produced before Magistrate, he can send the accused to custody for a time period of 15 days.
Custody for 7 days.
If Judicial Magistrate is not available then the Executive Magistrate can give custody of accused for time period not more than seven days.
Custody for 60 days.
According to Section 167(2) (a) (ii), Magistrate can send accused to extended custody for period of sixty days on reasonable grounds. In these sixty days, police custody will not be more than fifteen days.
Custody for 90 days.
According to section 167(2)(a)(i), Magistrate can extend custody up to 90 days for investigation of offence related to punishment of death or life imprisonment or imprisonment not less than ten years.
In this section it is also mentioned that accused must be present in the court for police custody. For judicial custody accused can also address Court through video conferencing. When police fail to file charge sheet even after custody of sixty days or ninety days it becomes right of accused to get bail after application for bail.
Conclusion
In this article we discussed the police custody and judicial custody also we have discussed difference between them. The main purpose of custody is to maintain peace and avoid any further wrong activities. Police arrest the suspected person to gather more information and to avoid any kind of destruction of evidence.
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