High Turnout as Bihar Votes in 1st Phase; Supreme Court Says Police Must Tell Arrested Person the Grounds of Arrest; Why Mamdani Feels Like the Leader Our Generation's Been Waiting For

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Snapshot of the day

November 6, 2025

Siddharth Varadarajan

A Supreme Court judgment on the procedure to be followed at the time of arrest may have ended up benefiting a person accused of drunk driving but its broader effect will be to curb the abuse of police powers by the executive. The Supreme Court ruled today that arrested persons must be informed of the grounds of their arrest in writing – in a language they understand – for any offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, and other laws.

In exceptional circumstances where immediate written communication is impractical (such as offences committed in front of police), grounds can be conveyed orally at arrest, but must be provided in writing within a reasonable time—at least two hours before remand proceedings.

Recent cases like Pankaj Bansal (2024) and Prabir Purkayastha (2024) had held that providing written grounds for arrest were mandatory for special statutes (PMLA, UAPA), but there was ambiguity about the procedure to be followed for regular criminal offences. Today’s judgment settles the ambiguity by making written communication mandatory for all offenes and establishing the two-hour minimum timeframe.

A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice Augistine Masih ruled that non-compliance with these requirements renders the arrest and subsequent remand illegal, entitling the arrested person to be released.

The Court emphasised that this is not mere procedural formality but a fundamental constitutional safeguard under Articles 21 and 22(1), enabling arrestees to effectively defend themselves, consult legal counsel, and oppose remand. [PDF of judgment]

While the voter turnout till 5pm was recorded at 60.13%, a look back at the 2020 election results provides the essential context for this contest. The party-wise seat tally in 2020, shows that the contest between the two major alliances was extremely close, with the mahathagathbandhan (MGB) or grand alliance winning 61 seats and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 59 seats. Pavan Korada cuts through the numbers – and the pretence.

Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta looks at how a new Mandal-centred campaign has pushed Hindutva out – with four patterns and nine seats worth recalling after a pitched, bi-polar campaign.

On the eve of millions of voters in India’s third most populous state, Bihar, 121 out of 243 assembly constituencies voted today in the first phase of elections that could not only shape the state’s future but also serve as a bellwether for the broader mood of the nation, the Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBMC) in the suburbs of Mumbai has issued notice to Bhojpuri actor-singer Khesari Lal Yadav, who is currently contesting the Bihar Assembly polls on a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ticket, over alleged illegal construction at his residence in Mira Road. According to the MBMC, the notice concerns the “unauthorised installation of iron angles and a tin-sheet shed” at Yadav’s