Context: Recently, Vikas Dubey, a gangster was killed by the Uttar Pradesh Police in an encounter (extra-judicial killing). However, many experts raised questions on the encounter and demanded a judicial enquiry into the matter.
Process

• Every state in India has a power to constitute a Special Task Force (STF) to deal with certain problems due to lack of adequate police forces for a task. 
• It was first constituted by Uttar Pradesh police to control the exponentially increasing crime rates.

What is Remand?

• Remand is a process by which a person keeps in the custody before its actual trial or conviction process.
• Meaning of the Remand is “to send back”.  It means when an accused is arrested by the police, then the police officer can’t keep the accused in its custody for more than 24 hours (sec. 57 CrPC), he has to present the accused before the Magistrate after the completion of 24 hours, for more detention in the custody.
• It is also known as “pre-trial detention”. Sections 56, 57, 167, and 309 of the code deal with the procedure to be adopted in relation to grant of remand.

Two types of Remand

• Judicial Remand or Judicial Custody: Accused is sent to the local jail/other establishment under the eyes of the judiciary. It means the custody of the accused is in the hands of the judiciary.
• Police Remand or Police Custody:  Accused is sent to the police station’s jail. In this police seeks custody of an accused to interrogate him.

Maximum period of remand

• Under section 167 of Cr.P.C., maximum period for which judicial magistrate can authorise the detention of accused is 15 days. The magistrate has the authority to remand the person into judicial or police custody.
• Police custody may extend only up to a period of 15 days from the date custody begins but judicial custody may extend to a period of 90 days for a crime which entails a punishment of death, life imprisonment etc. and 60 days for all other crimes if the magistrate is convinced that sufficient reasons exists, following which the accused must be released on bail.

Rights of accused

• The Constitution of India under Article 22 provides for the protection of the arrested person to the extent that he has a right to be informed of the reason for arrest and he must be produced before the nearest magistrate within a period of 24 hours.
• Article 22 (1) also provides that he shall be entitled to consult and to be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice.
• Section 50, Cr. P.C. which is a corollary to Article 22, says that the persons arrested should be informed of the ground of arrest, and of the right to bail.

What is Transit Remand?

• Section 80 in The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 defines the transit demand.
• It says “When a warrant of arrest is executed outside the district in which it was issued, the person has to be trialed in a court of that particular district for remand”.

Exception

• Unless the Court which issued the warrant is within 30 kms of the place of arrest OR
• Unless the Court is nearer than the Executive Magistrate/District Superintendent of Police/Commissioner of Police within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the arrest was made OR
• Unless security is taken under section 71.
• Example: An offense is committed in Uttar Pradesh but the offender is arrested in Madhya Pradesh. In this case, police will obtain transit remand from Madhya Pradesh court to produce offender in the Uttar Pradesh court so that he can be trialed and investigated.

Road Ahead

• Encounter killings must be investigated independently as they affect the credibility of rule of law. There is a need to ensure that there exists a rule of law in the society that needs to be adhered to by every State authority and the masses.
• Ensuring proper physical custody of the accused in order to prevent any attack by them on the police personnel.
• Further, there is a dire need for complete overhauling of the criminal justice system and bringing out required police reforms.
• Standard guidelines need to be laid down to better train the police personnel and equip them with all relevant skills so that they can effectively tackle every dreadful situation.
• Human rights angles need to be kept in the mind while dealing with arrested individuals/persons.