New Delhi, July 9, 2026: The Supreme Court on Thursday indicated that it may consider referring to a larger bench the issue of whether grounds of arrest must mandatorily be provided in writing to a person at the time of arrest.
A bench of Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Shree Chandrashekhar was hearing a petition filed by the State of Meghalaya challenging the bail granted to Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime suspect in the May 2025 honeymoon murder case of her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, Live Law reported.
Conflicting Judgments Examined
The bench orally conveyed its inclination to Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for Meghalaya, and pointed out that different Supreme Court benches have delivered conflicting judgments on the issue.
Justice Misra referred to the case of Pankaj Bansal, where the court held that the Enforcement Directorate must provide grounds of arrest in writing to an accused. He also referred to Dr Rajinder Rajan, where bail was granted to doctors in an NDPS case after grounds of arrest were not supplied in writing as required under the Mihir Shah decision, which held that written grounds of arrest were mandatory under all statutes.
The judge also referred to the Vihaan Kumar judgment, where the court observed that while grounds of arrest must be communicated, they need not necessarily be provided in writing.
“We will consider this matter at length. We will also decide if the matter requires to be referred to a larger bench. The problem is there are two judgments. One is Pankaj Bansal judgment, which was before Vihaan and Mihir Rajesh judgments. In Pankaj Bansal judgment, paragraph 45 requires the communication of grounds of arrest in writing. Now there is the judgment in Rajinder Rajan, then there is the Vihaan judgment, which says there is no requirement to give grounds in writing. This is the conflict which is arising from various coordinate bench judgments,” Justice Misra observed.
State Defends Arrest Memo
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that, in the present case, written grounds of arrest had been supplied to Sonam Raghuvanshi. However, he said there was a typographical error in which Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was wrongly mentioned as Section 403 BNS, which does not exist.
The Solicitor General said the courts had granted bail only on the ground that the clerical mistake amounted to non-supply of grounds of arrest.
Justice Misra pointed out that the gravamen of the charge must be disclosed and that merely mentioning sections was not enough.
“It’s not about simply mentioning sections... you have to give the general background that you are involved in the murder of your husband,” the judge said.
The court, while noting that the case was “serious”, relisted the matter for Tuesday and asked the State to file legible copies of the original documents supplied to the accused.
Earlier Bail Proceedings
On July 3, a bench led by Justice M. M. Sundresh refused to stay the bail granted to Sonam Raghuvanshi, even though it had prima facie expressed reservations over the High Court judgment that upheld her bail only on the basis of a typographical error in the arrest memo.
Since Sonam had already been released, the court declined to stay the order but agreed to hear the petition filed by the State of Meghalaya challenging the bail order.
On June 29, the High Court upheld the Trial Court's bail order, observing that the error showed that the arrest documents were prepared without due application of mind.
The High Court further noted that even if mentioning the non-existent Section 403(1) BNS instead of Section 103(1) BNS was a typographical error, its repetition across multiple core documents could not be ignored.
“The foundational basis for building up a case against the accused/respondent being found lacking, all other attempts to rectify the subsequent actions or process will have to fail,” the court observed.
Honeymoon Murder Case
The case came to light after the couple, who had married on May 12, 2025, went missing on May 23 while on their honeymoon in Meghalaya. They were last seen checking out of a homestay in Nongriat.
A few days later, their rented scooter was found abandoned near Sohrarim. On June 2, around 10 days after their disappearance, Raja's body was found in a deep gorge near Weisawdong Falls in East Khasi Hills.
Sonam, who had remained missing till June 8, was later found near a dhaba on the Varanasi-Ghazipur main road.
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The Meghalaya Police later stated that Sonam, along with 21-year-old Raj Kushwaha, was being considered one of the prime suspects in Raja's murder. The State Police have already filed a more than 700-page chargesheet, claiming that the murder was premeditated by Sonam and Kushwaha.
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