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Several substantive and procedural legislation in India has provided particular benefits and attention to women in order to protect the judicial apparatus from the prevailing social lacuna of patriarchal supremacy and to promote the concept of gender equality.
It is a widely held belief that criminals do not exclusively belong to one social class. An offender could belong to any race, class, gender, or ethnicity. As a result, a person committing or being suspected of committing an offence could be a woman. To deal with such situations, India's criminal laws contain provisions that address the arrest, trial, and inherent legal rights of a woman accused of a crime.
Section 46 of the Criminal Procedure Code of 1973 and Section 46(4) (amended under Section 6) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2005 define the basic procedure for arresting a woman. Section 46(4) states that no women shall get arrested after sunset and before sunrise unless exceptional circumstances exist and that if such exceptional circumstances exist, the woman police officer should obtain the prior permission of a first-class Judicial Magistrate within whose local jurisdiction extends over the area of the offence or the arrest must initiate by filing a written report.
According to the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission, the arrest of a woman must always include a woman police officer. Women should not get summoned to the police station or any other location other than their home for questioning (Section 160(1) of CrPC). It further states that neither a male under the age of 15 nor a female under the age of 15 shall be made to attend any location other than their home. The Hon'ble Supreme Court declared in Sheela Barse vs. the State of Maharashtra (1983) that it is the responsibility of police officials making arrests to ensure that arrested females are separated from men and housed in a female lock-up in the police station. Women should get confined in a separate room if there are no separate lock-ups.
The arrested person has the right to acquire information about the reasons for his arrest under Section 50(1) of the CrPC, and the police officer or any other person carrying out the arrest must provide it to him. This right is available to both accused men and women.
Furthermore, under Section 50(2) of the CrPC, a woman who gets arrested without a warrant for an offence other than a non-bailable one gets advised of her right to get freed on bail once sureties get arranged on her behalf.
A police officer cannot detain an arrested person for more than 24 hours in his custody under reasonable circumstances, according to Section 57 of the CrPC. If the person detained is a woman, the arrangements for her custody must be established with the utmost respect in mind.
In a nutshell, the provisions of criminal law are well in line with the intention of protecting the modesty of every accused woman. The benefits afforded to women accused of crimes are a standout aspect of Criminal Law, which promotes the ideals of public morality and female modesty. However, despite getting enacted, the laws have failed to take root because many women in the country are still uninformed of their rights and are routinely subjected to prejudice and abuse.
For a more detailed understanding, refer to the" Sheela Barse Vs. State of Maharashtra" case study by clicking the case below.
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