Article 21: "No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law."
Article 21 and Article 22 of the Constitution of India: Life, Personal Liberty and Protection on Arrest
Articles 21 and 22 are fundamental-rights provisions in Part III of the Constitution of India. Article 21 protects life and personal liberty, while Article 22 lays down constitutional safeguards relating to arrest, detention and preventive detention.
Current constitutional text: The official Constitution published by the Legislative Department incorporates amendments up to the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023. Article 22(4) continues to state the three-month rule because the relevant substitution made by section 3 of the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978 has not yet been brought into force.
Article 21: Protection of Life and Personal Liberty
What Article 21 Means
Article 21 applies to every "person", not only to citizens. It prevents deprivation of life or personal liberty except under authority of law and through a legally valid procedure. Constitutional interpretation has treated the guarantee as more than protection against mere physical extinction or confinement; the right has developed through Supreme Court decisions into a broad protection of human dignity and personal liberty.
In Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, the Supreme Court linked the procedure affecting personal liberty with fairness and non-arbitrariness under the constitutional scheme. Later decisions have applied Article 21 to several dimensions of dignified life. In K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, a nine-judge Bench recognized privacy as a constitutionally protected right arising primarily from the guarantee of life and personal liberty and other freedoms.
Important: Article 21 does not mean that liberty can never be restricted. A deprivation must have lawful authority and must satisfy applicable constitutional requirements.
Article 22: Protection Against Arrest and Detention in Certain Cases
Article 22 supplements the protection of personal liberty by prescribing specific safeguards for arrested persons and separate constitutional rules for preventive detention.
Clause (1): A person who is arrested cannot be kept in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds of arrest. The person also cannot be denied the right to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his or her choice.
Clause (2): Every arrested and detained person must be produced before the nearest Magistrate within twenty-four hours of arrest, excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the Magistrate's court. Detention beyond that period requires the authority of a Magistrate.
Clause (3): Clauses (1) and (2) do not apply to an enemy alien or to a person arrested or detained under a law providing for preventive detention.
Clause (4): Under the text presently in force, a preventive-detention law cannot authorize detention for longer than three months unless the constitutional requirements concerning an Advisory Board are met, subject also to the alternative contemplated by clause (4)(b).
Clause (5): The authority making a preventive-detention order must, as soon as may be, communicate the grounds of detention and give the detainee the earliest opportunity to make a representation against the order.
Clause (6): The authority is not required to disclose facts that it considers contrary to the public interest to disclose.
Clause (7): Parliament may legislate on the circumstances and classes of cases specified in the clause, maximum periods of preventive detention, and the procedure of an Advisory Board.
Key Constitutional Rights of an Arrested Person
For an ordinary arrest covered by Article 22(1) and (2), the central constitutional protections are prompt information about the grounds of arrest, access to a legal practitioner of choice, production before the nearest Magistrate within twenty-four hours after excluding necessary journey time, and no further custody beyond that period without magisterial authority.
These constitutional guarantees operate together with statutory safeguards governing arrest and custody. The Supreme Court has also developed safeguards against custodial abuse, including through D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal.
Preventive Detention Under Article 22
Preventive detention is detention intended to prevent anticipated conduct rather than punishment after conviction for a completed offence. Because Article 22(3) excludes preventive detention from the ordinary safeguards in clauses (1) and (2), clauses (4) to (7) provide a distinct constitutional framework.
The current official constitutional text retains the three-month formulation in Article 22(4). The Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978 enacted a substitution referring to two months and a differently constituted Advisory Board, but the official text expressly records that the commencement date for that substitution is yet to be notified.
Article 22 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for the general criminal-procedure framework from 1 July 2024, contains statutory arrest safeguards that operate alongside Articles 21 and 22.
Among the relevant provisions, section 47 requires a person arrested without warrant to be informed forthwith of the full particulars of the offence or other grounds of arrest and, where applicable, of the right to bail. Section 48 requires information about the arrest and place of custody to be given to a relative, friend or other nominated person. Section 56 requires reasonable care of the health and safety of an arrested person. Section 57 requires a person arrested without warrant to be taken without unnecessary delay before the appropriate Magistrate or officer in charge of a police station. Section 58 addresses the constitutional twenty-four-hour limit on detention without magisterial authority.
For the exact statutory language and any subsequent amendment, the current official text should always be checked before relying on a provision in a legal proceeding.
Official Legal Sources
The authoritative current text should be verified from the Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, and India Code. The official Constitution available from the Legislative Department states that it is updated through the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023.
Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice
India Code
This page provides general legal information and the constitutional text in summarized form. For litigation, arrest, detention or preventive-detention matters, consult the official text, applicable special law and current judicial decisions.