Acquittal only reversed if blatantly perverse: SC
Top court sets aside LHC verdict to send accused to jail 14 years after he was acquitted
Supreme Court set aside LHC verdict of to send accused to jail 14 years after he was acquitted. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court has declared that any acquittal can only be reversed if found “blatantly perverse, resting upon fringes of impossibility and resulting into miscarriage of justice,” as it set aside a Lahore High Court verdict to send an accused to jail 14 years after he was acquitted.
“Acquittal carries with it double presumption of innocence; it is reversed only when found blatantly perverse, resting upon fringes of impossibility and resulting into miscarriage of justice. It cannot be set aside merely on the possibility of a contra view,” read the three-page ruling authored by recently appointed SC judge Qazi Muhammad Amin. Justices Manzoor Ahmad Malik and Syed Mansoor Ali Shah were other members of the bench hearing the criminal case.
Justice Amin noted that LHC “derogated from settled principles of law and thus departure does not commend itself with approval.”
“Resultantly, criminal appeal is allowed, impugned judgment dated 15.2.2016 is set aside. The appellant is acquitted from the charge and shall be set at liberty forthwith, if not required in any other case,” the SC order stated.
In view of the SC ruling, Muhammad Shafi, the accused in the case, has been freed after three years of imprisonment.
Shafi was accused of murdering Khalil Ahmed in the remits of Chunian police station, Kasur district in collusion with two others, namely Abdul Razzaq and the second wife of the deceased, Sakina Bibi. According to the complainant, who claimed he was accompanying Khalil at the time, the victim was bludgeoned to death by Shafi and Razzaq as he passed Sakina’s residence.
A property dispute between the accused, particularly Sakina, and Khalil was cited as the motive for the attack.
The accused were indicted before an additional sessions judge, who acquitted them on October 30, 2002. However, the LHC on February 15, 2016 reversed Shafi’s acquittal, convicted him under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Shafi was also directed to pay Rs200,000 in compensation or undergo six months solitary imprisonment with benefit of Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
SC bench’s reasoning
In the SC ruling, Justice Amin noted that the bench found none of the reasons cited by the trial judge for acquittal ‘artificial or unrealistic’. “Even otherwise on an independent analysis, genesis of prosecution case does not appear to be free from doubt,” the order read.
It further stated that “the deceased was 70 years of age and in a chilled winter morning his presence at the crime scene within the view of witnesses, admittedly inimical towards the accused, available per chance and with formidable past has rightly been viewed with caution by the trial judge.”
“Certainly there was no occasion for the learned High Court to convert appellant’s acquittal into conviction after it had itself disbelieved prosecution evidence qua two out of three accused, one with an identical role,” the judgment pointed out.
During the case, the appellant’s counsel insisted that his client was not only acquitted by the trial court but also declared innocent during investigation.
The Supreme Court has declared that any acquittal can only be reversed if found “blatantly perverse, resting upon fringes of impossibility and resulting into miscarriage of justice,” as it set aside a Lahore High Court verdict to send an accused to jail 14 years after he was acquitted.
“Acquittal carries with it double presumption of innocence; it is reversed only when found blatantly perverse, resting upon fringes of impossibility and resulting into miscarriage of justice. It cannot be set aside merely on the possibility of a contra view,” read the three-page ruling authored by recently appointed SC judge Qazi Muhammad Amin. Justices Manzoor Ahmad Malik and Syed Mansoor Ali Shah were other members of the bench hearing the criminal case.
Justice Amin noted that LHC “derogated from settled principles of law and thus departure does not commend itself with approval.”
“Resultantly, criminal appeal is allowed, impugned judgment dated 15.2.2016 is set aside. The appellant is acquitted from the charge and shall be set at liberty forthwith, if not required in any other case,” the SC order stated.
In view of the SC ruling, Muhammad Shafi, the accused in the case, has been freed after three years of imprisonment.
Shafi was accused of murdering Khalil Ahmed in the remits of Chunian police station, Kasur district in collusion with two others, namely Abdul Razzaq and the second wife of the deceased, Sakina Bibi. According to the complainant, who claimed he was accompanying Khalil at the time, the victim was bludgeoned to death by Shafi and Razzaq as he passed Sakina’s residence.
A property dispute between the accused, particularly Sakina, and Khalil was cited as the motive for the attack.
The accused were indicted before an additional sessions judge, who acquitted them on October 30, 2002. However, the LHC on February 15, 2016 reversed Shafi’s acquittal, convicted him under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Shafi was also directed to pay Rs200,000 in compensation or undergo six months solitary imprisonment with benefit of Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
SC bench’s reasoning
In the SC ruling, Justice Amin noted that the bench found none of the reasons cited by the trial judge for acquittal ‘artificial or unrealistic’. “Even otherwise on an independent analysis, genesis of prosecution case does not appear to be free from doubt,” the order read.
It further stated that “the deceased was 70 years of age and in a chilled winter morning his presence at the crime scene within the view of witnesses, admittedly inimical towards the accused, available per chance and with formidable past has rightly been viewed with caution by the trial judge.”
“Certainly there was no occasion for the learned High Court to convert appellant’s acquittal into conviction after it had itself disbelieved prosecution evidence qua two out of three accused, one with an identical role,” the judgment pointed out.
During the case, the appellant’s counsel insisted that his client was not only acquitted by the trial court but also declared innocent during investigation.