Roshan Ram­char­i­tar

A per­son may be ar­rest­ed by the po­lice:

�2 be­fore he or she is charged

�2 af­ter he or she has been charged with an of­fence

Un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion, every per­son who is ar­rest­ed or de­tained has cer­tain rights.These in­clude the right to:

�2 be in­formed prompt­ly of the rea­son for his ar­rest or de­ten­tion

�2 re­main silent/not in­crim­i­nate him­self

�2 the right to re­tain and in­struct with­out de­lay a le­gal ad­vis­er

�2 the right to be brought prompt­ly be­fore a court

�2 the right to the rem­e­dy of habeas cor­pus

Fur­ther, if you are charged with a crim­i­nal of­fence, you have the right to:

�2 be pre­sumed in­no­cent un­til proven guilty

�2 a fair and im­par­tial pub­lic hear­ing be­fore an in­de­pen­dent tri­bunal

�2 rea­son­able bail with­out just cause

Rea­son

The po­lice must in­form you of the rea­son for your ar­rest at the time of ar­rest or as soon as pos­si­ble af­ter ar­rest. The po­lice must give you enough de­tails of the rea­son for your ar­rest so it is clear to you.

Si­lence

You have the right to re­main silent. The po­lice must tell you of this right. You do not have to give a state­ment to the po­lice if you do not want to. This in­cludes both oral and writ­ten state­ments. You have the right to ask the po­lice to speak to a rel­a­tive, friend or to your at­tor­ney.

At­tor­ney

You have the right to speak with an at­tor­ney-at-law to get ad­vice on any on any mat­ter re­lat­ing to your ar­rest or charge. You al­so have the right to re­tain an at­tor­ney to de­fend you. A de­fen­dant should be al­lowed the ear­li­est op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­tain a lawyer to act on his or her be­half to pre­vent him or her from say­ing or do­ing any­thing against his or her in­ter­est.

Mag­is­trate

You have the right to be brought be­fore a mag­is­trate or jus­tice of the peace as soon as pos­si­ble af­ter you are charged.

Bail/Rea­son­able bail

If the of­fence is one for which bail may be grant­ed, you have the right to make an ap­pli­ca­tion for bail be­fore the mag­is­trate or jus­tice of the peace. You have the right to rea­son­able bail for bail­able of­fences and the right not to be re­fused bail with­out there be­ing a good rea­son.

Habeas cor­pus

If you are de­tained, you have the right to make an ap­pli­ca­tion for habeas cor­pus to de­cide if your de­ten­tion is valid or law­ful. Habeas cor­pus re­quires that those who de­tain you must jus­ti­fy to a Judge why you are be­ing de­tained.

In­no­cent

You have the right to be pre­sumed in­no­cent un­til the po­lice or pros­e­cu­tion prove you guilty. The po­lice or pros­e­cu­tion must do so be­yond rea­son­able doubt. In a few lim­it­ed cas­es the bur­den of prov­ing an is­sue may shift to you. When this hap­pens the bur­den is a less­er stan­dard, that is, on a bal­ance of prob­a­bil­i­ties.

Fair tri­al

You have the right to a fair hear­ing be­fore an in­de­pen­dent court or tri­bunal.

(This col­umn is not le­gal ad­vice. If you have a le­gal prob­lem, you should con­sult a le­gal ad­vis­er.)