I will only refer to four or five points. There are, firstly, two clause of persons who may be arrested: (1) those arrested on a specific charge, and (2) those who are to be detained, not for any specific offence, but because their detention is thought necessary in the interests of the State. With regard to the first class of persons, they are being given no new rights whatever. The article says that no person shall be arrested without the authority of a magistrate. But that right every citizen has got under the Criminal Procedure Code. It may be said that that Code can be changed by Parliament or even by the provincial legislature. But still, trusting in the good sense of the legislatures as we do, we may take it that they are not going to provide for detention, even on a specific charge, beyond 24 hours without the authority of a magistrate. Therefore, the right conceded here is one which the citizen already enjoys. It is further provided that he shall be produced after 24 hours of his arrest before a magistrate. That provision also appears in the Criminal Procedure Code. Therefore this article confers nothing that is new or guarantees nothing which any legislature would not provide for.
