House arrest u/s 167 CrPC permissible in appropriate cases Ordinarily, custody under Section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is construed as police custody and judicial custody, with judicial custody being conflated with police custody. However, in a recent ruling, a Supreme Court bench of Justices UU Lalit and KM Joseph have held that in appropriate cases, it is open to courts to order house arrest u/s 167, taking into account criteria such as age, health condition, antecedents, nature of crime, need for other forms of custody and ability to enforce the terms of the house arrest. These observations were made by the court on a plea by Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha seeking default bail on ground that the period for which he was confined under house arrest should be calculated as part of the judicial custody and should be taken into account while deciding the custody period under Section 167(2). Reddy & Reddy Law Firm has a forte in handling litigation matters. They have an experienced team of lawyers ready to assist in all your disputes.