Respondent sent to jail after he tells court he can’t pay damages. PHOTO: FILE
The District Consumer Court sent a man to jail for the first time in its history on Monday, after he said was unable to pay the damages awarded against him.
Petitioner Liaqat Ali, manager of Tipu Enterprises (Hoest Candies Factory), filed a petition on November 23, 2010, seeking damages of Rs1.4 million from Mushtaq Ahmed, the proprietor of Bismillah Generator Workshop, for allegedly selling him a defective generator.
Having found in favour of the petitioner, District and Sessions Judge Khawaja Hassan Wali asked the accused whether he would pay the damages or go to jail. Ahmed responded that he could not pay the damages so the court should send him to jail.
Ahmed told The Express Tribune that he had tried to reach a compromise with the petitioner, but had been unable to. He said that he had two wives and 15 children and they would suffer in his absence. He said most of his children were very young. Two work, but don’t make enough to support the two families, he added.
The petitioner, Liaqat Ali, said Ahmed had been given plenty of time to settle out of court but he had only made excuses and tried to delay matters.
The judge directed jail authorities to produce Ahmed in court again on November 28, at which point he will be asked again whether he can pay the damages to the petitioner.
If he can’t pay the damages, he can be sentenced to up to two years in jail, according to Section 32 of the Punjab Consumer Protection Court Act of 2005.
Background
Ali submitted in his petition that he had bought a 40kv gas-powered generator from Ahmed for Rs450,000 to install in the factory that he managed. But the generator did not work, he said. The respondent and his engineers tried to fix it, but were unable to. He asked Ahmed to return the money, but he refused, he added.
The court issued notices, and then bailable and non-bailable arrest warrants for Ahmed, but he did not show up for hearings.
The court proceeded ex-parte and ruled that the respondent must either replace the defective generator with a new one, or return the Rs450,000 paid for the generator and pay the petitioner an additional Rs15,000 for legal expenses and Rs20,000 for causing stress.
Ahmed then appealed to the Lahore High Court to set aside the decision on the grounds that he had not been heard by the consumer court.
The LHC, on August 27, 2011, set aside the verdict and instructed the consumer court to hear Ahmed’s version of events.
The consumer court started hearing the case afresh, but Ahmed again skipped hearings, ignoring notices and warrants. The court again proceeded ex-parte and issued the same verdict.
Kot Lakhpat police finally arrested Ahmed and produced him before the consumer court on Monday, when he was sent to jail.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2013.
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