MEHAR DIN vs ALAMDAR HUSSAIN AND ANOTHER.S
This petition for leave to appeal arose from a Lahore High Court order refusing to cancel bail granted to the respondent in a murder case. The petitioner challenged the High Court's refusal to cancel bail, citing legal arguments regarding the grant of bail to an absconder. The Supreme Court noted that the petition was barred by time regarding the original High Court order. Regarding the merits, while the Court acknowledged that the petitioner's argument concerning the law on granting bail to an absconder found support in the precedent of Rao Qadeer Khan v. The State (PLD 1981 SC 93), it declined to grant leave to appeal. The Court held that because the trial had already commenced and a significant number of witnesses had been examined before the trial was transferred to a different judge, it was not a fit case for interference at that stage. Consequently, the petition for leave to appeal was dismissed.
- Is a petition for leave to appeal maintainable if it is barred by time?
- Does the commencement of a trial and the examination of witnesses influence the Supreme Court's decision to interfere with bail orders?
- Can the Supreme Court decline to grant leave to appeal even if the petitioner's legal argument finds support in precedent?
ORDER
1. MUHAMMAD AFZAL ZULLAH, J.-This petition for leave to appealarises out of orders of the Lahore High Court; whereby it declined to cancel that bail granted to respondent No. 1 in a murder case.
2. The petition is barred by time in so far as the original order of the High Court dated 24th May, 1981 is concerned. The order dated 27-1-1982 by the High Court declining to make any clarification regarding order dated 12-12-1981 is unexceptionable. And even if this petition be treated as within time in so far as the order dated 12-12-1981 is considered; on merits although the argument raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner regarding law on the question of bail to an absconder, finds support from a recent judgment of this Court in Rao Qadeer Khan v. The State PLD 1981 SC 93, we, however, do not consider it a fit case for grant of leave to appeal at this stage, because the trial having commenced, a large number of witnesses were examined before one learned Judge and the case now stands transferred to another learned Judge for trial. This petition accordingly is dismissed.