1 2 CONTRIBUTIONS PATRONAGE AND SUPERVISION . Hon'ble Mr. Justice Khalil Ur .Rehman Khan Chief Justice, Lahore High Court, Lahore REVISION OF RULES & ORDERS Hon'ble Mr. Justice Khalil Ur Rehman Khan (Volumes I, II, IVand V) Hon'ble Mr. Justice (Retd.) Malik Akhtar Hassan (Volumes I and II) Hon'ble Mr. Justice (Retd.) Chaudhary Fazal Karim (Volume III) Hon'ble Mr. Justice (Retd.) Rustam S. Sidhwa Hon'ble Mr. Justice (Retd.) Saad Saood Jan Hon'ble Mr. Justice (Late) Chaudhary Zafrunah Khan (Volume V) RULES COMMITIEE Hon'ble Mr. Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum Hon'ble Mr. Justice Abdul Hareez Cheema Hon'ble Mr. Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari SPECIAL ASSISTANCE Hon'ble Mr. Justice Chaudhary Muhammad Nasim SENIOR EDITOR Syed Ijaz Qutub Additional District & Sessions Judge O.S.D. (Rules) Lahore High Court EDITOR Muhammad Riaz Deputy Registrar (Rules) Lahore High Court ASSIST ANTS Muhammad Asghar Mughal Superintendent (Rules) Sh. Nasir Ali P.A. to O.S.D. (Rules) Muhammad Saeed Assistant SYSTEM ANALYST Khalid Shakoor COMPOSING Sardar Muhammad Data Co-ordinator Muhammad Saeed Aslam Data Co-ordinator PUBLISHERS Muttaqi Printers (Kausar Brothers) I-Turner Road, Lahore 3 Key to the symbols used in Volume III: * Suostl/utea vIae laIJord Hi.lb COUd Notification No. .334/Rules II, D.4.(III), dated 21st September, 1996. ** Added vide Lahore High Court Notification ibid. *** Omitted vide Lahore High Court Notification ibid. Note: For original text 'and earlier amendments therein, the previous edition(s) of the Volume may be consulted. 1 Rules and Orders of the Lahore High Court Lahore VOLUME III. – Instructions to Criminal Courts CHAPTER 1 Practice in the trial of Criminal Cases PART A -- GENERAL *[1. Court hours and place of sitting.-- All trials held at the headquarters of a district or sub-division shall be conducted during Court hours as may be fixed by the High Court from time to time, at Court houses only. When it becomes necessary to take up a case on tour, due notice of the place and hour fixed for attendance shall be given to the parties: Provided that nothing in this paragraph shall apply to the Courts set up to try offences at the spot under the Minor Acts, such as traffic offences, cattle trespass and forests offences, etc.] 2. **[Institution of ordinary petitions.]-- (a) A petition box shall be placed in the verandah of the Court house at about one hour before the Court sits, an official being specially made to attend early for this purpose. It shall be opened in the presence of the Magistrate at about 15 minutes after the Court opens when all petitions shall be presented and initialled by him. The Magistrate shall pass proper orders forthwith or inform the petitioner when orders will be ready after the necessary Kaifiyats have been put up. The box shall be replaced in the verandah and opened again shortly before the Court rises for luncheon in the presence of the Magistrate and the same procedure followed. It shall then be replaced once more in the verandah and opened for the last time 15 minutes before the time fixed for the rising of the Court and the procedure prescribed above followed. After the Magistrate has risen, the box will be brought back to the Court room and no further petitions will be accepted. A list of all 2 miscellaneous petitions, etc., on which orders cannot be passed forthwith, should be prepared and exhibited outside the Court room specifying the date fixed for the disposal of each petition. (b) **[Urgent petitions.]-- In urgent cases, however, the Magistrate may exercise his discretion and personally receive *[petitions] presented to him direct at any time. (c) The members of the ministerial establishment are strictly forbidden to receive complaints, petitions or other documents direct from lawyers and their clerks or from litigants except when the Magistrate is on leave and no other Magistrate is in charge of his current duties. District Magistrates should, however, invariably make arrangements for the reception of complaints, petitions, etc., by another Magistrate when a Magistrate is temporarily absent on leave, tour or otherwise. Where there is a single Magistrate at a station such as a Moffassil or outlying Court, District Magistrates should issue such orders as may be necessary in the peculiar circumstances of each case to ensure the convenience of the general public. *[(d) Application put in by counsel for the inspection of records may be presented to the Magistrate personally.] 3. Court house in an open Court.-- Section 352 of the Code of Criminal Procedure lays down that the place where a Criminal Court is held, "shall be deemed an open Court to which the public generally may have access so far as the same can conveniently contain them," but the discretion to exclude the public from the ordinary Court room rests with the presiding Magistrate. When, however, the presiding Magistrate, for any reason, excludes the public by holding his Court in a building such as a jail, to which the public is not admitted (and he is not entitled to do so without permission of the Department concerned) he should obtain the sanction of Government thereto, through the District Magistrate, and should inform the High Court that sanction has been accorded. *[4. Speedy disposal of cases.- Magistrates shall give priority to criminal cases when an accused person is in custody. A criminal case shall be proceeded with from day to day as far as practicable and disposed of quickly. Witnesses, who are present, should be examined promptly and shall not be 3 detained longer than may be absolutely necessary. Adjournments, when necessary, shall be as short as the circumstances permit. 4-A. It is not a reasonable cause of postponement under section 344 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, except for a short period, that there are other accused in the case for whose arrest it is considered by the Court desirable to wait in order that all the accused may be put on their trial together. Every accused has a right to have the evidence against him recorded at as early a period as possible.] 5 & 6 ***[Omitted] *[7. Closing hour of Court.-- The hearing of a case taken up before closing hour of the court may, if necessary, be continued for a short time after that hour; but no new case should be taken up after the hour when the court is timed to rise.] 8. Adjournments caused by holidays, etc.-- On the occurrence of an unexpected holiday or the unexpected absence of an officer, the Presiding Officer, before his departure or before finishing the work on the day preceding the holiday, should himself fix fresh dates of hearing in the peshi register for the cases fixed for the day in question. The register should then be made over to the reader of the court, or in the case of a holiday to a selected reader, who should be made responsible for informing all parties and witnesses of the adjournments given on their coming to attend the closed court or courts. On holidays the duty Magistrate at headquarters should check and supervise the work of the selected reader for the Criminal Courts at least once in the course of the morning. 9. Daily progress reports.-- The forms prescribed for reporting the daily progress of cases (see Volume VI-B, Part III, form No. 176) should be used by Magistrates without fail and a copy should be sent daily to the District Magistrate or Sub-Divisional Officer as the case may be. 10. Explanation of delay in quarterly statements.-- Magistrate shall furnish in quarterly criminal statement No. II explanations of delay in the disposal of cases pending over 4 months. In this connection also see paragraph 6 of Chapter 23- C, Volume IV. 4 11. History sheets.-- Magistrate shall submit history sheets containing abstract of orders passed on different dates in all cases pending over one year provided they are not stayed. When delay is said to be due to a transfer application pending in a higher court, it is the duty of the higher court concerned to look into and remark on the causes of delay and to expedite disposal of the transfer application. ---------------------- 5 PART B -- INITIATION OF PROCEEDINGS 1. ***[Omitted] *[2. Right of accused for transfer of a case taken up by a Magistrate on information or knowledge. - In most cases Magistrates take cognizance of an offence on a complaint under clause (a), or on the report of a Police Officer under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 190 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898. A Magistrate taking cognizance of an offence under clause (c) of sub-section (1) must, before any evidence is taken, inform the accused person that he is entitled to have the case tried by another Court, and if the accused objects to being tried by such Magistrate, the case must be sent in the case of a Judicial Magistrate to the Sessions Judge and in the case of an Executive Magistrate to the District Magistrate for being transferred to another Magistrate (section 191 Cr. P.C)] 3. Complaints how to be dealt with.-- Complaints of offences made in writing should be received during office hours on all days other than public holidays. Upon the institution of a complaint, the date of presentation should be immediately endorsed thereon, together with the name of the Magistrate to whom the case is to be sent for inquiry or trial under section 192 of the Code, and the complainant directed to appear before him either the same day or one of the following days for examination.