Right to sleep a basic human need, says HC on ED questioning sr citizen midnight

The right to sleep is a basic human requirement which cannot be violated the Bombay High Court said on Monday deprecating the Enforcement Directorate ED for questioning a senior citizen throughout the night in a money laundering caseA division bench of Justices Revati MohiteDere and Manjusha Deshpande said statements must be recorded during earthly hours and not at night when a persons cognitive skills may be impairedThe court gave the order in a plea filed by 64yearold Ram Issrani challenging his arrest by the probe agency in a money laundering case The ED arrested Issrani in August 2023In his plea Issrani claimed that his arrest was illegal and unwarranted as he had been cooperating with the probe and had appeared before the agency whenever he was issued summons On August 7 2023 Issrani appeared before the agency as per the summons issued and he was questioned throughout the night and arrested in the case the next day the plea statedThe bench dismissed the petition but said it disapproved of the practice of questioning the petitioner through the nightThe probe agencys counsel Hiten Venegaonkar submitted to the court that Issrani had consented to his statement being recorded through the night As per the plea Issrani was questioned till 3 am by ED officialsVoluntary or otherwise we deprecate the manner in which the petitioners statement was recorded so late in the night which went on post midnight till 330 am the court said The right to sleep right to blink is a basic human requirement inasmuch as nonproviding of the same violates a persons human rights it observedLack of sleep affects a persons health and may impair his mental faculties cognitive skills and so on it said The said person so summoned cannot be deprived of his basic human right ie right to sleep by the agency beyond a reasonable time Statements must necessarily be recorded during earthly hours and not in the night when the persons cognitive skills may be impaired the bench saidThe court noted that when a person is summoned for questioning the investigating agency was yet to arrive at a reason to believe that the said person is guilty of an offence The bench noted that the petitioner had appeared before the agency to record his statement in the past The petitioner could have been summoned on some other day or even the next day instead of keeping him waiting after midnight despite his alleged consent it saidConsent is immaterial Recording of statement at unearthly hours definitely results in the deprivation of a persons sleep a basic human right of an individual We disapprove of this practice the court said The court said it deems it appropriate to direct the ED to issue a circulardirections about the timings to record statements when summons are issuedThe bench posted the matter for compliance on September 9This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever