Civil Prison

Friends, do you know that as per law there are two types of prison, one for criminal offence and other for civil offence, and many of the states do not have prisons for civil offences and Maharashtra state is also one of those states. This came into light during one of the civil case recently.

The case was, a young man, who was distributor for Pharma giant, was accused by the Pharma company of not paying Rs 3.5 Cr against supply of goods in 2016. The company filed a case in Bombay High Court, who directed the man to furnish an affidavit disclosing his assets. As  the young man tried to avoid complying with the order and he also made false and incorrect statements repeatedly, the judge sentence him to civil imprisonment for 3 months. The accused approached Supreme court, and SC directed him to surrender within a week. The defendant, in response asked where he might find a civil prison , and how to surrender and to whom. He was asked to go to Registrar of City Civil Court, who directed him to report to  Byculla jail, in Mumbai, which is meant for criminal convicts.

Now his lawyer started research on this matter, and found that in the two cases on civil imprisonment pending before the court, no order has been passed, and ideally in this case also the client should not be behind the bars. By this time  man was put behind the bars,  and was not allowed to meet his family except through barbed window in Byculla jail. The conditions in which he has kept were unhygenic and he has not been allowed to speak to his children on the phone at all for so many days.

His lawyer again approached Bombay High Court, and while giving judgement, the learned Justice said that the convict person was not asking preferential treatment or luxuries. The Prisons Act 1894 that covers civil imprisonment in Mumbai, the section 27(4) clearly states that  civil prisoners have to be separated from criminal prisoners. Section 31 says that civil prisoner is permitted to purchase or receive from private sources at proper hours- food, clothing, bedding and other necessary items. If the civil prisoner is unable to do so , these are to be provided to him. Section 34, with the permission, the prisoner can work and follow any trade or profession. Section 40 requires that provision be made for admission into every person or persons with whom civil prisoners may desire to communicate.

Further the rule 3 requires that civil prisoners be confined to civil jail or a portion of a criminal jail set apart for this purpose, and he is not allowed to hold any communications or be associated with criminal prisoners. It looks like in the cited case(as mentioned above) these procedures are not followed. The judge finally made made the observations that that it is highly inconceivable that Maharashtra state is unable to provide what the law requires. The statement made by the govt that it will take the necessary actions is too little too late.  The HC  after hearing the arguments dismissed the case, and set him free.

After going through  all the above, it only means that there were hardly any conviction in the civil cases. Let us see how the top legal luminaries reacted on this case

1. Rohini Salian- former Chief Public Prosecutor- ” This is first time I am coming across a matter for civil imprisonment– In case of civil imprisonment, the person is entitled to a more liberal stay. If the state or country does not have such a jail, then the provisions should be made to make such division within the existing establishment”. Which further augments my view that there are hardly any civil convictions in the state of Maharashtra.
2. Justice AR Lakshmanan-former SC judge ” We do not have civil jail. There is only none jail where people are compelled to undergo punishment, depending on the nature of crime committed.” He further adds that he needs to check the HC order before making any specific comment. It only means that SC judge is not fully aware of the issue and even in SC there are few civil matters which needs conviction.
3. Majeed Memon- Senior Criminal Lawyer ” A person who has been convicted to suffer imprisonment for a certain term with specific pronouncement of simple imprisonment,  can not be put to serve rigorous imprisonment, which is common in criminal offences. If it so happens, it is breach of prisoner’s constitutional right under Article 21 and the person can even demand compensation from the state govt.”

I do not know the status of civil prisons in another states, but if a progressive state like Maharashtra is unable to provide facility for civil jail, then I can imagine the situation in other states.

What you say my friends.

Waiting for your feed backs/comments/views.