136/2014 Criminal Appeal BASAR, MOOSA, BABU ALL S/O QASIM OTHO (Appellant) V/S THE STATE (Respondent)
Sindh High Court
Bench: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Arshad Hussain Khan(Author)
Order Date: 13-FEB-17
Present criminal appeal has been preferred against the judgment passed by IInd Additional Sessions Judge Thatta, whereby the appellants were convicted under Section 3(2) of the Illegal Dispossession Act, 2005 to suffer R.I. for two years each with directions to pay Rs.25,000/- each as compensation to the complainant. The matter was taken into consideration in the light of the provisions of Illegal Dispossession Act 2005, and the main ingredients of Section 3 of Act (ibid) viz. Dispossess, Grab, Control, Occupy, without lawful authority and Intention to dispossess, grab, control or occupy property from owner were also considered. It was observed that the application of said provision can only be justified when there is clear Intention to do such act of dispossession, hence the question of Mens rea is to be proved by the complainant on all counts and it is basic principle of law of evidence that he who alleges a fact has to prove the same and especially in criminal cases the proof must be beyond any reasonable doubt. In this respect case of Waqar Ali and others v. The state and others (PLD 2011 SC 181) was considered. It was also observed that an accused has only to show a dent having occurred/created in the evidence/care of the prosecution, and that he is entitled to the benefit of even a single doubt, found in the evidence of the prosecution, and that he has not to show that its case suffers from more than one doubt. It was also taken into consideration that the quality of the evidence and not the quantity of the evidence has a bearing on the fate of the case of the prosecution; such is the guideline given by Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan in the case of Haq Nawaz and others v. The State and others (2000 SCMR 785). It was discussed that in the present case it was the duty of complainant to link all the chain of evidence in a manner that it should form such a continuous chain which link to one end of appellants/accused persons and the other to act of dispossession, when one chain link is missing, the same loses its validity. It was opined that the impugned judgment did not qualify the parameters of Section 3 of illegal Dispossession Act, 2005 as the complainant and the entire chain of evidence had not proved the ingredients of illegal Dispossession in any manner. Appeal was allowed.Full judgment text for this case is not yet available on Pakistan Law Reports. Check the official Sindh High Court case law portal for the complete order.
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