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Criminal Petition for Special Leave to Appeal No. K/8 of 1979, decided on 19th January, 1980.
(On Appeal against the judgment and order dated 17‑12‑1978 of the Sind High Court in Constitutional Petition No. D/1614 of 1978).
‑‑ S. 51‑Eligibility of prisoner to Class 'A' or Class B'‑Notification making provision for certain specified persons to be eligible to a better class in jail‑Held, agreeing with High Court, such Notification does not confer any enforceable right on a prisoner.
Hashmat Ali, Advocate Supreme Court for Petitioner.
Usman Ghani Rashid, Advocate‑General (Sind) for the State.
Date of hearing :19th January, 1980.
‑The facts giving rise to the present petition are as follows:
Abdul Rashid petitioner is accused of an offence under section 302, P. P. C. vide F.I . R. 205 of 1977 registered at P. S. Brigade, Karachi. He was arrested and produced before a Magistrate and was remanded to custody. He moved an application for grant of B class in jail but the learned Magistrate refused it on the ground that the case was exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions. The petitioner, therefore, moved the learned Sessions Judge, Karachi for the grant of B class in jail. The learned Sessions Judge passed the following order: ‑‑
"Heard the A. P. and D. C. The accused is Law Graduate and is accustomed to high mode of life. I grant him B class as under- trial prisoner subject to the approval of the Provincial Government to be processed on the proforma, through the D. C. concerned."
As a result, the petitioner was placed in B class by the jail authorities. But he was subsequently shifted to C class. He then approached the Government for B class but the request was refused. The petitioner thereupon filed a constitutional petition before the Sind High Court which was dismissed vide the impugned order dated 17th December, 1979 with the following observation: ‑‑
" . ....Reference to Notification would show that the provisions contained therein make certain classes of prisoners eligible for class A or class B in jail custody, but no justiciable right has teen conferred on them as can be in a petition under Article 199 of the Constitution. This petition, therefore, has no substance and is accordingly dismissed in limine.
Hence the present petition.
We have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner who urged that the petitioner is entitled under the law to be placed in class B. We are, now ever, inclined to agree with the learned High Court that although the relevant Notification makes provision for certain specified persons whereby the petitioner would be eligible to a better class in jail but it does not confer any enforceable right on the petitioner. The petition is, therefore, dismissed as being without any merit.
Petition dismissed.
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