SC says convict to get benefit of an acquittal

Three-judge bench disagrees with 2017 dissenting note of Justice Qazi Faez Isa

ISLAMABAD: The top court has declared that a convict will get all benefits and fruits of a lawful acquittal on the basis of a compromise with legal heirs of a victim in criminal matters.

The Supreme Court three-judge bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, on Friday issued a written order examining question whether compounding of an offence under section 345, CrPC amounts to acquittal of the accused person or not.



The controversy arose in March 2017, when the SC judge Qazi Faez Isa differed with the majority opinion on this point and said a compromise with heirs in criminal matters ‘cannot affect the conviction’.

The judge said if legal heirs of the deceased compound the offence, it does not mean that the person, who was convicted for murder, was not guilty of it, which would be the case if, as a consequence of allowing the composition, he is ‘acquitted’.

“A man who has committed murder but is ‘acquitted’ merely because the legal heirs of the murdered person compound the offence, would enable the murderer, for instance, to honestly declare on a job application that he is not and has never been a convict.

“He could thus be eligible to apply for government employment, be employed as a teacher, be inducted into the armed forces, enter the judicial service or even be appointed as a judge of the superior courts. There is then the religious aspect to the discussion.

“The person who has committed the sin of murder if he professes his guilt or is convicted in this world, and serves out his sentence or is released as a consequence of the legal heirs forgiving him, may be spared the agony of punishment in the hereafter,” said Justice Isa in his note.



Later, the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar referred the matter to the three-judge bench for giving final opinion.

Justice Khosa in majority opinion said the court appreciates intensity and sincerity of the sentiment expressed by Justice Isa but could not agree with “his lordship so as to interpret the existing law in the light of some hypothetical possibilities in this world and retribution or redemption in the hereafter.”

Justice Khosa said that it is not for the court to consider as to how such a person would be dealt with by the Almighty in the next world or on the Day of Judgment as the court’s job is only to interpret and apply the law of the land as it exists.

“Our short response to such stance is that it is based upon nothing but good intentions and pious wishes, it stems from mere possibilities conjured up by a noble and public-spirited mind, it involves public policy and it is for the legislature to amend the relevant laws, etc, to keep such a person out of the public life, if it so desires and decides,” it said.

The court said without introducing appropriate amendments in the criminal law in vogue in the country there is little scope for canvasing such collateral or incidental punishments for a person and as long as the law of the land stands as it is all the fruits and effects of acquittal have to be extended to such person on the basis of a complete and lawful compounding of the offence with him.