38/2024 Criminal Miscelleneous Hina Siraj Manoo W/o Siraj Sadiq Manoo (Applicant) V/S The State & another (Respondent)
Sindh High Court
Bench: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon(Author)
Order Date: 03-JUL-24
In the instant case when the proceedings against the accused were stopped by the consent of the parties, they were on bail. It is well settled that release/discharge in such a case can only be construed to mean release from the liability for attending the Court, consequent upon the stoppage of the proceedings, the case comes to an end for an indefinite period. Prima facie, the accused are, therefore, no longer required to attend the Court proceedings due to stoppage of the proceeding sine a die till disposal of Civil Suit No. 945 of 2015. In such a scenario I have come across section 249, Cr. P.C., which is like section 253 Cr. P.C., which was deleted in the wake of law reforms. The defunct section empowered the Court to "discharge" the accused at any stage of the case before framing of charge against him/her. However, the accused's discharge under the said section did not operate as a permanent closure of the case against him/her. After his discharge, if sufficient evidence became available, the case could be revived against him/her. Similarly the stoppage of the proceedings under section 249, Cr.P.C. has the effect of discharging the accused until such time when on availability of the requisite evidence the case could be revived against him/her. However, in the present case, the proceedings have been adjourned sine a die till disposal of the civil proceedings and the prosecution was set at liberty to file an application for bringing the case on file before the Court after disposal of the aforesaid civil proceedings. In the meanwhile the bail bonds and sureties of the accused were ordered to remain intact till further orders, which triggered the cause the surety/applicant to apply for discharging the surety with substitution of P.R bond in the like amount as ordered by the competent Court of law, when the bail of the accused was granted. It is admitted position that the Civil Suit between the parties is pending adjudication before this Court and the fate of that suit is yet to be decided, in the meanwhile keeping in view the legal position of the case that normally criminal proceedings should not be postponed pending the disposal of the civil litigation connected with the same subject matter, but where it is clear that criminal liability is dependent upon the result of the civil litigation or is so intimately concern with it that there is a danger of grave injustice being done in the case, if there be a conflict of decision between the civil Court and the criminal Court then in such event it was/is equally clear that that criminal Court has not only the right to proceed but should also stay its hand until the civil litigation is disposed of.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.
This judgment is reproduced from a publicly available source for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. If you believe this listing contains an error,
let us know.