Report No. 78

2.21. Conflicting considerations and two approaches.-

The crucial question that has arisen is how much importance is to be attached to each of these factors. There could be a stringent approach and there could be a liberal approach. In support of a stringent approach, if could, in the first place, be said that a person is not arrested unless there is some reliable material to indicate his guilt.

Even after arrest, he is not prosecuted in the absence of a prima facie case, so that he can, with some justification, be regarded as one on whom restraint can be justly imposed in the interest of ensuring attendance and preventing tampering with the evidence, both being objectives vitally connected with the process of justice. Secondly, it could be said that apart from the risk of failure to appear, there be risk that he will repeat the alleged offence or commit some other offence, if owed to remain free, so that there will be danger to human life or property.