KARACHI, Dec 5: A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday held that whenever a prisoner is convicted for more than one offence, the benefit of Section 382B of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) can be given to him form the date of arrest in each case.
The bench, comprising Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Ali Aslam Jaferi, pronounced the short order, holding that consecutive sentences under section 397 CrPC are to be given effect accordingly.
The court gave the order while disposing of a constitutional petition filed by Mohammad Mubin, a convict held in a narcotics case.
Represented by Advocate Raza Hashmi, he had moved the SHC making the provincial Home Secretary, IG, Prisons and Incharge Remissions, Central Prison, Karachi.
The petitioner’s counsel had maintained that the jail authorities were not allowing remissions to which the convict was entitled and that Rule 216 of the Pakistan Prison Rules was not fully implemented.
His writ petition was earlier converted by the court into public interest litigation. Thus his CP was converted into Criminal Miscellaneous.
A notice was issued to the advocate general and the superintendent of Central Prison, Karachi.
Advocate Raza Hashmi, who assisted the court as amicus curie, had raised the point that such practice was a violation of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.
It was also his contention that 382B CrPC was mandatory. Once it was given to an accused in one case, it had to be given in all the cases. Mr Hashmi had also contended that benefit under 382B should also be given for the period a convict had to undergo extra period of imprisonment in case of default in the payment of fine.
It was also his contention that application of 382B should be calculated from the date of arrest and not from the date of conviction. He had also shown with a comparative chart that certain remissions under the Pakistan Prisons Rule, which were allowed in Punjab and other parts, were not being allowed by the prison authorities in Sindh. This was termed by him as discriminatory.
Suleman Habibullah, AAG Sindh, had contended that benefit under 382B could be given only once. He also referred to his written views on the subject.
The superintendent of the Central Prison, Karachi, in his written submission, had stated that his men had been counting sentences of a prisoner in more than one case, in each of his cases separately and allowing all kinds of remissions from the date of arrest along with under-trial period in each case whereby benefit of section 382B CrPC had been granted by the court.
He had also maintained that this practice had been erroneously stopped since Nov 30, 2000, due to the misinterpretation of the opinion given by the office of AG Sindh.
Mr Habibullah said the jail superintendent had made a false statment because he had the authority of grant remission. He said that when it came they granted seven-year remission to Yunis Habib who was serving a four-year sentence. At this point Raza Hashmi referred to Ayub Afridi’s freedom the same day after being convicted for seven years on Nov 28.
The AAG suggested that the jail superintendent should be called to the court.
After hearing Raza Hashmi the court ordered that it was of the view, which was also shared by Suleman Habibullah, AAG, that “whenever a prisoner is convicted for more than one offence use of section 382B is separately considered for each offence.”
The bench after detailed hearing disposed of the petition by a short order with the reasons to be recorded later. However in the order the bench further held that “the same principle would apply to cases of concurrent sentences because separate consideration of such benefit would not allow accumulation in more than one case so as to reduce the substantive sentence required to be undergone after deducting the benefit in that case”.
The bench further held that the prison authorities were competent to grant any remission permissible under the law exercisable in reasonable exercise of discretion and not beyond.