A guy who has been imprisoned for almost two years on a civil suit for not providing his wife with maintenance has been ordered to be released immediately by the Delhi High Court.
The trial court granted Qamar Ahmed’s wife and kids maintenance of Rs 3,340 per month in 2016. Ahmed’s embroidery machine was put up for auction in 2021 and he was sent in jail the following year because he could not afford the necessary repairs on time.
A bench of Justice Amit Bansal ordered the immediate release of Ahmed and said, “Taking into account that the petitioner has already been in custody for about one year and nine months, this court, as an interim measure, is inclined to direct the immediate release of the petitioner.”
The order was passed after taking note of the arguments by advocate Nitin Saluja who argued, saying, “In terms of Section 125(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC), the maximum permissible period for which the magistrate can order civil imprisonment is for a period of one month.”
Through Varun Dev Mishra, his legal assistance attorney, Ahmed had submitted the plea.
“The petitioner, whose personal freedom has been in peril for the past 24 months, claims that his right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India is curtailed and this deprivation of liberty is illegal. Further, his long incarceration is violative of Article 11 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” the plea said.
It said that the man’s detention resulted from his failure to pay arrears.
“The petitioner’s maintenance order was passed keeping into consideration that the petitioner is running the business through his embroidery machine. As fate must have it, the petitioner had to sell off the same machine on January 28, 2021, to respect the execution decree. And now the continuous incarceration for the past two years has clearly made him unable to pay,” the plea said
