Civil Liberties international human rights laws have recognised the power of the State to arrest as a part of its primary responsibility to maintain law and order. The Constitution requires ajust, fair and a reasonable procedure established by the law, under which alone, such deprivation of liberty is permissible. 3^4 Article 22(1) of the Constitution provides that every person placed under arrest shall be informed of the ground of arrest, and shall not be denied the right to be defended by a lawyer of his choice; and Section 50 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC), 1973, requires the police officer arresting any person to forthwith communicate to him full particulars of the offence for which he or she has been arrested or any other ground of such arrest. In actual practice, these requirements have been observed more in breach. Likewise, the requirement to produce the arrested person before a Court within 24 hours is primarily a statutory requirement under the Constitution (Article 22(2)) and Cr.PC (Section 57), but this too is not strictly observed. 3.35 The Commission has continued to receive a large number ofcomplaints pertaining to human rights violations resulting from the abuse of police powers, pardcularly in respect of 'arrest and detention'. It, therefore, felt that the gap between the law and practice has to be narrowed down by prescribing elaborate and specific guidelines regarding 'arrest'. The objective was to minimise the scope of misuse or abuse of the power of 'arrest' without curtailing the powers of the police in effective prevention and detection of crime and the maintenance of law and order. Accordingly, the Commission, on 22 November 1999, issued detailed guidelines to the Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police of the States covering the powers of the police in the areas of 'pre- arrest', 'during arrest' and 'post-arrest'. The Chief Secretaries and DGPs of the States were advised by the Commission to get these guidelines translated into the respective local languages and distributed to all police personnel in police stations. They were also advised to incorporate these guidelines in the handbook to be given to all police personnel. The DGft of the States were requested, in particular, to sensitise the police officials during the course of training and take prompt action against errant police officials. The Commission felt that this would increase credibility and respect for the police, and enable it to gain greater cooperation fixjm the public (Annexure IV). 3.36 In a letter, dated 1January 2000, addressed to the Chief Ministers of all the States, the Chairperson, emphasised that the guidelines on 'police arrest' (Annexure III), as circulated by the Commission, would help prevent human rights violations in areas in which the police functions daily. The Commission, he added, hopes that all the instruments of governance would rededicate themselves towards promoting a better human rights culture realising that the dignity of the individual is a part of Constitutional promise, and contributes to the augmentation of human resource development in the nation. 27