The Allahabad bench ruled that the recent cluster of Supreme Court decisions on illegal arrest and habeas corpus, the second set, did not appear to have taken into account the older, more detailed line of precedents that had sketched out the entire criminal procedure. Because of this, the bench ruled that those newer rulings are not binding precedents and hit by the principles of stare decisis, that is, they cannot overturn the more established, well reasoned position.

Parliament took a clear legislative choice in drafting Sections 3(1)(r) and (s) to connect those specific offences to a public element, and courts are not free to read out that element simply because a commentator finds it inconvenient.