PESHAWAR, March 26: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday ruled that an offence committed by a juvenile offender before the promulgation of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO), 2000, shall be tried under the ordinance.

A two-member bench of the high court comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Talaat Qayyum Qureshi set aside conviction of a juvenile offender by a trial court and remanded the case back for re-trial under the JJSO.

The appellant, Fayyaz Khan, was convicted by the Nowshera district and sessions judge on Oct 20, 2003, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs one million.

The appellant was arrested by the special squad of excise and taxation department on March 18, 1999 on the GT Road near Nowshera and from his possession they had allegedly recovered 20kg of heroin.

At the time of occurrence the JJSO had not been promulgated, therefore, the trial court ruled that the ordinance could not be applied to his case as it was not given retrospective effect.

Advocate Khalid Afridi appeared for the appellant and argued that although at the time of occurrence the JJSO was not promulgated, the moment the law came into being the appellant was entitled to be treated under that and not like adult accused persons.

He argued that he had moved an application to before the trial court and had requested the court to try him under the JJSO, but the trial court turned down his plea. He added that medical examination of the accused was also conducted which proved that at the time of occurrence he was 16.