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Criminal Miscellaneous No. 583 of 1968, decided on 12th March 1969.

S. 56l-A-Proceedings under Martial Law Regulations pending in Court of SessioJ2s Judge since about seven years-No orders transferring case from Martial Law Authorities to Court of Session found to have been passed-Proceedings having become infructuous ordered to be quashed.

Mubarik All v. The State P L D 1965 Lah. 102 fol.

Mahmood A. Qureshi for Petitioners.

Malik Abdul Hamid for A.-G. for the State.

This is an application under section 561-A, Cr. P. C. for quashment of the proceedings pending against the petitioners in the Court of Kh. Ihsan-ul-Haq, Additional Sessions Judge, Lahore, under Martial Law Regulation No. 27 read with Martial Law Regulation No. 40. A case was registered against the petitioners at Police Station Yakki Gate, Lahore, on the 23rd of April 1962, under the aforesaid Martial Law Regulations as the petitioners were allegedly found in possession of smuggled goods. The challan was submitted to the P. D. S. P. on the 16th of May 1962, who submitted the same in the Court of the Sessions Judge, Lahore on the 5th of September 1962. The Sessions Judge, Lahore, entrusted the case for trial to the Additional Sessions Judge, Lahore, on the 17th of December 1962. The case was registered in the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge on the 22nd of December 1962, and the accused were ordered to be summoned on the 2nd of January 1963 for the 4th of February 1963. Since then the case is pending in the said Court and only three prosecution witnesses have been examined in the course of about seven years. The quashment is prayed for on the ground of delay and on the further ground that the Martial Law Regulation under which the case was registered against the petitioners were abrogated under Article 225(3) of the 1962-Constitution and the proceedings were not saved under Article 250 of the Con stitution. It is not disputed for the State that the case was not committed to the Court of Session as contemplated by the Criminal Procedure Code and the learned counsel for the State also conceded that he had not been able to get at any orders for the transfer of the case from the Martial Law Authorities to the Sessions Court. Learned counsel for the petitioners has relied on the Full Bench authority reported as Mubarik Ali v. The State (P L D 1965 Lah. 102) paragraph 20 of which is in the following terms :-

"The position with regard to those cases in which no such order had been passed is wholly different. Since an order by the Administrator or his delegate is a sine qua non for the hearing of a case under a Martial Law Regulation by an ordinary criminal Court, it follows that in the absence of an order the proceedings became infructuous and it would be useless to proceed further with them. The same reasoning applies a fortiori to those cases in which no investigation had begun."

According to this authority, the proceedings under Martial Law Regulations in which no orders of transfer of the cases to the ordinary Courts had been passed became infructuous and it will be useless to proceed further with them. Learned counsel for the State conceded that the instant case is covered by Mubarik Ali's case and that proceedings in this case had become 4 infructuous. In these circumstances, I order the proceedings pending against the petitioners in the Court of Kh. Ihsan-ul-Haq, Additional Sessions Judge, Lahore, under Martial Law Regulations Nos. 27 and 40 to be quashed.

Proceedings quashed.

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