Successive Bail Petitions

PLJ 2013 SC 762
[Appellate Jurisdiction]

Present: Asif Saeed Khan Khosa & Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, JJ.

RIZWAN ALI--Petitioner

versus

STATE etc.--Respondents

Crl. Petition No. 658-L of 2013, heard on 16.7.2013

(Against the order dated 19.6.2013 of the Lahore High Court Multan Bench, Multan passed in Criminal Miscellaneous No. 2084-B of 2013)

Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 (V of 1898)--

----S. 497--Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, Art. 185(3)--Bail application was allowed to be withdrawn the withdrawal--Withdrawal bail simplicitor--Principle laid down reported in 2013 SCMR 1059 had not been correctly applied by High Court--Merits of case were not attended--Validity--Supreme Court found consensus between parties to be justified because the merits of petitioner's case for bail had never been attended to by in all successive applications filed by petitioners for the relief and every time such application was allowed to be withdrawn--The withdrawal so sought application and allowed was nothing but withdrawal simplicitor--Petition was allowed.          [P. 763] A

2013 SCMR 1030, ref.

Mr. Khadim Nadeem Malik, ASC and Mrs. Tasneem Amin, AOR for Petitioner.

Complainant in Person.

Mr. Mazhar Sher Awan, APG Punjab for State.

Date of hearing: 16.7.2013.

Order

Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, J.--We have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, the learned Additional Prosecutor General, Punjab appearing for the State and Saleem Akhtar complainant in person and have gone through the record of this case with their assistance. It has been agreed between the learned counsel for the petitioner, the learned Additional Prosecutor General, Punjab and the complainant appearing in person that the principle laid down by this Court in the case of Muhammad Siddique v. The State (Criminal Petition No. 896-L of 2012) and in the case of Amir Masih v. The State and another (2013 SCMR 1059) has not been correctly applied by the learned Judge-in-Chamber of the Lahore High Court, Multan Bench, Multan to the facts  of  the  present  case  vis-a-vis  the  present  petitioner,  namely Rizwan Ali. On the basis of such consensus all of them have requested that this petition may be converted into an appeal and the same may be allowed, the impugned order passed by the Lahore High Court, Multan Bench, Multan on 19.6.2013 may be set aside and the matter of the petitioner's bail may be remanded to the Lahore High Court, Multan Bench, Multan for its decision afresh on the merits of the case. In the peculiar circumstances of the case we have found the consensus between the parties to be justified because the merits of the petitioner's case for bail had never been attended to by the Lahore High Court, Multan Bench, Multan in the orders passed by (sic) in all the three successive applications filed by the petitioner for the said relief and every time such application was allowed to be withdrawn the withdrawal so sought and allowed was nothing but withdrawal simpliciter. This petition is, therefore, converted into an appeal and the same is allowed, the impugned order passed by the Lahore High Court, Multan Bench, Multan on 19.6.2013 is set aside, Criminal Miscellaneous No. 2084-B of 2013 shall be deemed to be pending before the said Court and the same shall be decided afresh after attending to the merits of the petitioner's case for bail.

(R.A.)  Petition allowed