PESHAWAR, June 16: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday ruled that a juvenile offender could only be tried under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO).
The court set aside conviction of two brothers, stated to be juveniles, in a murder case and remanded their case back to trial court for a re-trial under the JJSO.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai observed that the trial court had not tried the two appellants under the JJSO. The appellants, Nabiullah and Tehseenullah, were convicted by the district and sessions judge in a murder case and were sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment each and were also directed to pay diyat money to the tune of Rs2,75,000 each to the suspects' family.
The prosecution had claimed that the appellants were playing cricket and during play they exchanged hot words and after altercation they killed the deceased. Advocate Abdul Samad Khan appeared for the appellants and contended that the evidence on record proved that the appellants were juvenile offenders as they were below 18 at the time of occurrence.
He cited various judgments of superior courts, contending that after the promulgation of the JJSO the appellants could only be tried by a juvenile court. He stated that the facts of the case also suggested that the appellants had not committed the offence.
He added that two brothers of the deceased were also present there and it was not possible that the two appellants would overpower three persons. The deceased family had also filed a review petition for enhancing the sentence of the appellants. The court dismissed the review petition also.
