LAHORE: The Supreme Court has confirmed the pre-arrest bail of a suspect in a cheque dishonour case, due to the absence of a written agreement between the parties regarding the amount.

City police of Khanewal registered a case under section 489F of the PPC against the suspect, Faisal Mehmood, on a complaint filed by a friend.

The Lahore High Court Multan bench had denied pre-arrest bail to the suspect/petitioner, leading to the petition filed before the apex court.

Advocate Zohaib Imran argued on behalf of the petitioner that his client and the complainant had been on friendly terms with each other, before a monetary dispute erupted between them.

He said the petitioner handed over a cheque of Rs6 million to the complainant as a guarantee following a reconciliation between the parties.

He alleged that the complainant misused the cheque and got a “fabricated” case registered against the petitioner.

On the other hand, the complainant alleged that the petitioner had borrowed money from him for a personal need. He said the amount was given to the petitioner in the presence of witnesses and he (petitioner) issued a cheque to him against it.

Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, who authored the verdict, observed that a bare perusal of the record shows that though the complainant alleges to have lent a huge amount to the petitioner in the presence of witnesses, no written agreement/deed was executed in this regard.

“Prima facie the dispute between the petitioner and complainant is of civil nature and apparently there are business dealings between them,” the judge noted.

Without doing a deeper appreciation of the evidence, the judge observed that the guilt of the petitioner is yet to be determined by the trial court after a proper trial.

Even otherwise, he said, the alleged offence under section 489F carries a maximum imprisonment of three years, which does not fall within prohibitory clause of section 497 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

“Therefore, in such circumstances, the grant of bail is a rule and its refusal an exception,” Justice Kakar ruled, converting the petition into an appeal and allowing the same by setting aside the impugned order.

The SC confirmed the interim pre-arrest bail earlier granted to the petitioner on 1st March. Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim were the other members of the apex court bench.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2026