Mst. INAYAT BEGUM and others vs MUHAMMAD ALI
This matter arises from a petition involving the interpretation of Article 185(2)(d) of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973. The core legal question concerns the divergent views taken by the Supreme Court regarding whether petitions filed instead of direct appeals—where aggrieved persons had a right to file direct appeals—should be converted into appeals and decided on merits, or dismissed as time-barred. The court held that there are conflicting judicial precedents on this issue, leading to inconsistent interpretations of the constitutional provision. Consequently, the court granted leave to appeal to resolve these inconsistencies and directed the office to place the case before the Chief Justice of Pakistan for the constitution of a larger bench.
- Whether petitions filed in lieu of direct appeals under Article 185(2)(d) of the Constitution should be converted into appeals and decided on merits?
- Whether divergent views taken by the Supreme Court regarding the interpretation of Article 185(2)(d) necessitate a larger bench to resolve inconsistencies?
- Article 185(2)(d), Constitution of Pakistan 1973
ORDER
' CH. IJAZ AHMED, J.---Question of law arising in, this petition relates to Article 185(2)(d) of the Constitution. This Court has taken divergent views while interpreting the aforesaid provision of the Constitution. In one set of the cases, the aggrieved persons had a right to file direct appeal before this Court but instead of filing the direct appeals, petitions were filed which were converted into appeals and appeals were decided on merits. Taking the view that office had not raised objection qua the maintainability of the petitions or right of appeal was much stronger than the right of filing appeal, therefore, petitions were converted into appeals. The list of cases of this kind is as follows:--
(i) Zulfiqar's case (PLD 2007 SC 582).
(ii) Taza Gul's case (2006 SCM R 504).
(iii) Syed Jamshaid Ali Shah's case (1992 SCM R 1195)
(iv) Haji Muhammad Nawaz's case (1990 SCM R 1621)
(v) Sardar Abdur Rauf Khan's case (1991 SCM R 2164)
(vi) Khurshid Anwar Khan's case (1992 SCM R 1202)
(vii) Muhammad Inayat's case (2003 SCM R 875)
(viii) Sardar Abdur Rauf Khan's case (1992 SCM R 1181).
(ix) Elahi Bakhsh's case 1992 SCM R 2443
(x) Sardar Abdur Rauf Khan's case (1992 SCM R 1181)
(xi) Mahmood Hussain Larib's case (2009 SCM R 857)
2. Contrary view had been taken in the following judgments where the petitions were not converted into appeals and were dismissed as time barred:
(i) Zafar Iqbal Hameed Khan's case (2005 SCM R 1371)
(ii) Ghulam Muhammad's case (2007 SMCR 41).
3. This Court has taken divergent views on the interpretation of the aforesaid provision of the Constitution, therefore, leave is granted to remove inconsistent views taken by this Court in the above referred judgments. Office is directed to place this case before the Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan for constituting larger Bench keeping in view of the aforesaid circumstances.