The Uttar Pradesh government has assured the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court that no person in the state will be arrested without providing the reason and grounds for the arrest.
The government also stated that all arrests would be made under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). Following this assurance, a division bench of Justice Abdul Moin and Justice Pramod Kumar Srivastava on May 4 allowed a habeas corpus petition filed by the nephew of Santosh Gupta and ordered the immediate release of Gupta.
Santosh Gupta was named as an accused in an FIR filed at the Kotwali Nagar police station in Balrampur district on charges of fraud and forgery.
The petitioner’s counsel told the court that the arrest was wrongful and the accused was not informed of the grounds for arrest. The counsel argued that this violated the Supreme Court’s guidelines in the Mihir Rajesh Shah case.
After the hearing, the court declared the petitioner’s arrest illegal. The remand order issued by the chief judicial magistrate, Balrampur, was also set aside.
Additional advocate general Vinod Kumar Shahi, representing the state government, assured the court that every effort would be made to ensure that no arrests are made without just cause and basis in the state in the future.
Shahi stated that keeping in view the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of Mihir Rajesh Shah Vs. State of Maharashtra in 2026, he issued a letter dated April 29, 2026, to the additional chief secretary (Home) and director general of police, UP, to strictly follow the directions issued by the Supreme Court.
Shahi also assured that a serious endeavour would be made to ensure that no such arrest is made in the State of Uttar Pradesh without giving the reasons and grounds for arrest to the person being arrested and that such arrest would be strictly in consonance with the provisions of the BNSS, 2023.