PESHAWAR, Jan 31: District and Sessions Judge Hayat Ali Shah has directed the prosecution not to submit charge-sheets of the cases carrying the sections of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997, to ordinary courts.

The judge has sent a letter to the senior superintendent of police (investigation) on Friday, stating that when Section 7 of the act is mentioned in the charge sheet against the accused person, the case goes out of the jurisdiction of ordinary courts and falls within the jurisdiction of anti terrorism courts.

The judge has stated that some cases have been instituted in the court wherein Section 7 of the ATA has been mentioned in the charge sheet.

The sessions judge observed that the prosecution and investigating officers did not take care, and this ignorance on their part created difficulties for the accused persons and also caused delay in the disposal of the case.

"It is, therefore, required that either Section 7 of the ATA should be deleted before submission of the charge sheet to ordinary courts or order within the meaning of Section 23 of the ATA be obtained from the special court concerned," the court added.

Under Section 23 of the ATA, if after taking cognizance of an offence the anti-terrorism court is of the opinion that the offence is not a scheduled offence, it shall transfer the case for trial to any court having jurisdiction under the Criminal Procedure Code (PPC).

The sessions judge has also directed the magistrates that while receiving charge sheets, they should specifically see the record before sending it up. If there is mention of the ATA, they should return the file to the prosecution or the quarters concerned, the court added.

Although the ATA was enacted in 1997, no courts were established under that act in the NWFP for over the last five years. The federal government had established seven anti-terrorism courts in March 2002 and since then the cases falling under the ATA are exclusively dealt by these courts.