HC directed to release the person despite not paying the fine

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has directed the immediate release of a man, who is behind bars despite completing his sentence in 14 criminal cases related to house breaking, mischief and theft in 2019, as he is unable to pay the fine amount. The court said that asking 30-year-old Sikandar Kale to undergo the entire default sentence for not paying the fine amount would be a travesty of justice. The High Court was hearing a petition filed by Kale, seeking reduction of his default sentence. The man was serving the default sentence imposed on him in lieu of paying the fine amount ordered to be paid by the trial court. Kale, a resident of Kolhapur, was arrested in 2017. He was sentenced to two years in jail in all the cases and his sentence was to run concurrently. The magistrate had also imposed fines in the cases, which totalled Rs 2.65 lakh. The magistrate had imposed additional time in jail in case the fine was not paid. Kale’s plea said that he has completed his sentence but due to poverty he is unable to pay the fine, and accordingly he will have to undergo an additional imprisonment of nine years. Therefore, he sought reduction of his default sentence. The court took note of the fact that Kale belongs to the economically weaker section of the society and he is in jail even after completion of his sentence, as he has not been able to manage the fine amount. “If he is directed to undergo the entire default sentence, he will have to undergo imprisonment for an additional period of nine years, which in our view would be a travesty of justice,” a bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande said on June 27. A copy of the detailed order was made available on Friday. The judges reduced the fine imposed in some cases and also said that the sentence already undergone by Kale due to non-payment of fine will be treated as default sentence. It found that Kale should have been released in 2020 itself after completing his sentence, however, he is still kept in jail due to his inability to pay the fine, which is “not a small amount but a whopping sum of Rs 2,65,000”.