Mention the circumstances when execution by detention in prison may be ordered, when the decree is for payment of money, and also mention the circumstances when person detained in execution may be released.

Question: Mention the circumstances when execution by detention in prison may be ordered, when the decree is for payment of money, and also mention the circumstances when a person detained in execution may be released.

Find the answer to the mains question only on Legal Bites. [Mention the circumstances when execution by detention in prison may be ordered, when the decree is for payment of money, and also mention the circumstances when person detained in execution may be released.]

Answer

The last recourse of a court in executing a decree is by sending the judgment-debtor to civil prison. But all precautions should be taken so as to avoid hardship. Proviso to Section 51 lays down the grounds before a person can be arrested and detained in prison:

(a) that the judgment-debtor, with the object or effect of obstructing or delaying the execution of the decree,

(i) is likely to abscond or leave the local limits of the jurisdiction of the Court, or

(ii) has, after the institution of the suit in which the decree was passed, dishonestly transferred, concealed, or removed any part of his property, or committed any other act of bad faith in relation to his property, or

(b) that the judgment-debtor has or has had since the date of the decree. the means to pay the amount of the decree or some substantial part thereof and refuses or neglects or has refused or neglected to pay the same, or

(c) that the decree is for a sum for which the judgment-debtor was bound in a fiduciary capacity to account.

Rule 11- A of Order 21 specifies that where an application is made for the arrest and detention in prison of the judgment-debtor, it shall state or be accompanied by an affidavit stating the grounds on which arrest is applied.

In this connection, it is worthwhile to mention the mandatory provision of Section 58 which reads as under

(1) Every person detained in the civil prison in execution of a decree shall be so detained,

(a) where the decree is for the payment of a sum of money exceeding 12 (five thousand rupees), for a period not exceeding three months, and

(b) where the decree is for the payment of a sum of money exceeding two thousand rupees, but not exceeding five thousand rupees, for a period not exceeding six weeks :

Provided that he shall be released from such detention before the expiration of the said period of detention

(i) on the amount mentioned in the warrant for his detention being paid to the officer in charge of the civil prison, or

(ii) on the decree against him being otherwise fully satisfied, or

(iii) on the request of the person on whose application he has been so detained, or

(iv) on the omission by the person, on whose application he has been so detained, to pay subsistence allowance :

Provided, also, that he shall not be released from such detention under clause (ii) or clause (iii), without the Order of the Court.

(1A) For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that no order for the detention of the judgment-debtor in civil prison in execution of a decree for the payment of money shall be made, where the total amount of the decree does not exceed two thousand rupees.

(2) A judgment-debtor released from detention under this section shall not merely by reason of his release be discharged from his debt, but he shall not be liable to be re-arrested under the decree in execution of which he was detained in the civil prison.

Also, the court has no power to order arrest or detention in the civil prison of a woman in execution of a decree for payment of money.

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