Mehr MUHAMMAD YOUNIS vs THE STATE
This matter arises from a pre-arrest bail application filed before the Lahore High Court in respect of FIR No. 383 of 2005 registered under Section 489-F of the Pakistan Penal Code 1860 at Police Station Shalimar, Lahore. The core legal question addressed is whether the police are barred from effecting the arrest of an accused person merely because a pre-arrest bail application has been filed in the court office. The court held that the filing of a bail application does not prevent the police from arresting the accused before the matter is taken up for hearing by the court, and since the petitioner had already been formally arrested prior to the hearing, the pre-arrest bail petition had become infructuous. The key principle laid down is that the mere institution of a bail petition in the office does not create an automatic protective shield against arrest until cognizance is taken and relief is granted by the court.
- Does the mere filing of a pre-arrest bail application in the office prevent the police from arresting the accused?
- At what point does an application for pre-arrest bail become infructuous?
- Can the police arrest an accused person in a case for which bail has not yet been granted while he is present within the court premises?
- Section 489-F, Pakistan Penal Code 1860
ORDER
' M. BILAL KHAN, J.---The petitioner who is in custody has been produced by Riaz Ali Inpector/Incharge Investigation Police Station Shalimar, Lahore.
2. This is an application for pre-arrest bail and Syed Hassan Qadir Shah, the learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that in case F.I.R. No,412 of 2005 registered at Police Station Shalimar, Lahore, under section 489-F, P.P.C. The petitioner had been allowed ad interim pre-arrest bail by my learned brother Mian M. Najum-uz-Zaman, J. This morning. He added that the petitioner's instant bail application had also been filed in the office today and a prayer had been made for fixation of the same today; after having been allowed bail by my said learned brother, the petitioner came out of the Court room and was apprehended by a person in plain clothes who claimed to be an Assistant Sub-Inspector of police; on this, the Security Officer of this Court was informed who made necessary enquiries and found out that the person who had apprehended the petitioner was Siraj Din A.S.-I. From Police Station Shalimar.
3. The Security Officer present in the Court informs that he had brought the matter to the notice of my learned brother Mian M. Najum-uz-Zaman, J. Who had asked the former to enquire if the petitioner had been apprehended in case F.I.R. No,412 of 2005 or in some other case. The Inquiry revealed that his arrest was being sought in case F.I.R. No,383 of 2005, registered at Police Station Shalimar, under section 489-F, P.P.C. Which is the subject-matter of the instant bail application and not in the case in which he had been allowed ad interim pre-arrest bail, whereupon the petitioner was handed over to the police. His formal arrest has been shown vide Rappat No,19 dated 27-10- 2005. There is no substance in the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that once bail application has been filed in the office, the police cannot effect arrest of a person. The petitioner had already been formally arrested when this petition came up before this Court for hearing at 2-00 p.m. Therefore, this petition for pre-arrest bail having become infructuous is accordingly dismissed.