Legal Provisions of Section 358 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Cr.P.C.), India.
Compensation to persons groundlessly arrested:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
This section empowers the Court to order a person to pay compensation to another person for causing a police officer to arrest such other person wrongfully without any sufficient cause. That is to say, if a person is instrumental in causing a groundless arrest of a person through the police, the Court may order such person to pay compensation to the wrongfully arrested person under this section. But in order to invoke the provisions of this section there must be some direct proximate nexus between the informant and the arrest that is made on the basis of such information, and there should be sufficient ground to indicate that the informant caused the arrest of accused without any sufficient cause.
Though the section does not expressly provide for a show cause notice to be given to the informant before making an order for compensation, but keeping in view the principles of natural justice, it would be appropriate that opportunity should be given to such person to show that there was sufficient ground for causing arrest of the person arrested.