Gujarat High Court Criminal Manual (subordinate court practice), 1977
The Constitution of India requires that persons arrested and detained in custody should be produced before the nearest Magistrate within 24 hours of such arrest excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the Court of the Magistrate, and that no such person should be detained beyond such period without the authority of the Magistrate. In the Criminal Procedure Code also a similar provision in respect of persons arrested without warrant is there. In case of a complaint of violation of said provisions, the Magistrate should check the time of arrest by questioning the person arrested, and see that this important constitutional safeguard for the personal liberty of the subject is not violated. Attempts are sometimes made to evade the law by describing custody or detention of any kind as 'nazarkaidi' or surveillance. Surveillance is one thing, and detention in any kind of custody is another. It is a mere evasion of the law to keep a suspected person in any kind of custody and then, by calling such detention 'nazarkaidi' to say that he is not under arrest. Such practice is still more objectionable when applied to witnesses. If the Magistrate finds that a person arrested and produced before him has been unlawfully detained he shall hold an inquiry into the matter and submit a report with the papers of inquiry to the Sessions Judge or the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, as the case may be, who shall take appropriate action in the matter.