The Supreme Court on July 27, 2026, set aside an Andhra Pradesh High Court condition barring police custody extension beyond the first fifteen days of remand. A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta held that Section 187(2) BNSS, unlike erstwhile Section 167 CrPC, allows police custody in parts, aggregating not more than fifteen days, within the first forty or sixty days of total permissible detention. The case arose from alleged custodial death of Gade Sai Krishna in Vijayawada.

This judgment marks a significant interpretive shift in remand law under India's new criminal procedure framework. Under the old Section 167 CrPC, police custody of an accused was strictly confined to the first fifteen days of remand—once that window closed, further police custody was unavailable regardless of investigation needs. This created rigidity: if fresh leads emerged on day 20, investigators had lost their custodial interrogation window permanently.

Section 187(2) and (3) BNSS deliberately enlarges this window. Police custody—aggregating not more than fifteen days—can now be sought in parts throughout the first forty days (for offences punishable with imprisonment up to ten years) or sixty days (for more serious offences) of the total permissible detention period. This is a legislative policy choice to empower investigators when fresh disclosures, forensic leads, or geographic factors make later custodial interrogation necessary.

The Court also clarified ancillary issues: advocate presence throughout interrogation violates Section 38 BNSS (which only guarantees the right to consult, not continuous presence); interrogation need not be confined to Central Prison; and videography, while retained as a safeguard, need not cover transit phases. Courts and Magistrates exercising supervisory jurisdiction cannot impose conditions that effectively nullify the statutory window Parliament created. For CLAT PG aspirants, this judgment sits at the intersection of statutory interpretation, legislative intent, and fundamental rights balancing—core competencies the exam tests through passage-based MCQs.