📜 Official Text

(1) No person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest nor shall he be denied the right to consult, and to be defended by, a legal practitioner of his choice. (2) Every person who is arrested and detained in custody shall be produced before the nearest magistrate within a period of twenty-four hours of such arrest (excluding travel time), and shall not be detained beyond that period without a magistrate's authority. (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. (4)-(7) Set out safeguards for preventive detention, including a general three-month cap unless an Advisory Board (of persons qualified to be High Court Judges) reports sufficient cause, the right to know the grounds for detention and to make a representation against it, and Parliament's power to prescribe the detailed procedure by law.