No Arrest or Detention of Women in Execution of a Money Decree

A flat, overriding bar: a court shall not arrest or jail a woman in the civil prison to enforce a money decree — whatever the rest of this Part allows.

§ 56

How to read Section 56

It overrides

The opening words — “Notwithstanding anything in this Part” — make § 56 prevail over the arrest power in § 51(c) and the machinery of § 55.

The bar

A court shall not order the arrest or detention in the civil prison of a woman — an absolute prohibition, leaving the court no discretion.

The limit

It bites only for a decree for the payment of money. For decrees of another kind, the immunity does not apply.

The bare Act

56. Prohibition of arrest or detention of women in execution of decree for money.

Notwithstanding anything in this Part, the Court shall not order the arrest or detention in the civil prison of a woman in execution of a decree for the payment of money.

Provenance § 56 stands as enacted in the original Code of 1908 — the bare Act carries no amendment to it.

Key terms decoded

Notwithstanding anything in this Part

A non-obstante (overriding) clause — § 56 prevails over every other provision in Part II that might otherwise permit the arrest.

Arrest or detention in the civil prison

Civil imprisonment of the judgment-debtor — both the act of arrest and the detention that follows are barred.

Woman

A female judgment-debtor — the person on whom § 56 confers this absolute immunity.

Decree for the payment of money

A money decree — the only category of decree to which this protection extends.

The picture — an absolute shield, for money decrees

The red strike is § 56’s flat prohibition: for a money decree, the civil-prison door is simply shut to a woman — no discretion, no exception within the Part.

Phrase by phrase

One short sentence, four working parts:

Overrides all

Notwithstanding anything in this Part

A non-obstante clause — § 56 sits above the rest of Part II. Even though § 51(c) permits arrest and § 55 sets out how, this section trumps them.

Absolute bar

the Court shall not order the arrest or detention in the civil prison

“Shall not” — a mandatory prohibition with no discretion. It bars both the arrest and the detention that would follow.

Who is protected

of a woman

The immunity is given to a woman judgment-debtor — it is her status that triggers the bar.

Only money decrees

in execution of a decree for the payment of money

The single limit: the bar applies only where execution is of a money decree. For other decrees (e.g. for restitution or specific relief) § 56 gives no immunity.

How § 56 connects

§ 56 is a carve-out from the arrest power — it switches off, for women, what §§ 51 and 55 switch on. The live links open them.

§ 55Arrest and detentionThe arrest machinery § 56 overrides — its third proviso already guarded a secluded woman’s privacy; § 56 bars her arrest outright.

§ 51Powers to enforce executionClause (c) authorises arrest & detention — the very power § 56 withholds against a woman in a money decree.

§ 54Partition of estatePart of the same §§ 51–59 execution-machinery group.

Note: the immunity is from arrest / civil prison only — it does not extinguish the debt. A money decree against a woman may still be executed against her property (attachment & sale under § 51(b)).

Does the § 56 bar apply? Two checks:

1 Is the judgment-debtor a woman?

2 Is execution of a decree for the payment of money?

Both “yes” → no arrest, no civil-prison detention (an absolute bar). Either “no” → § 56 does not apply.

Part II · Execution · §§ 36–74 — § 55 · § 56 · § 57 (subsistence allowance)