By
MUHAMMAD TAQI KHAN,
Advocate
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Ex-Member Punjab Bar Council
There is no cavil to this proposition of law that three corner principle of criminal jurisprudence are well settled.
1. That it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the case against accused and the weakness of the defense shall not strengthen the prosecution case. Accused is most favorite child of law and every benefit of doubt goes to him regardless of the fact whether he has contain any such plea or not:–
2008 SCMR 1080
2. Accused must be presumed to be innocent unless he is proved to be guilty. The onus of the prosecution never shift, the basic principle, was laid down of the criminal justice in famous case reported in PLD 1953 F.C 93 burden of general issue always on prosecution accused burden not as heavy as that on the prosecution accused failing to prove special pleadings, but succeeding in raising reasonable doubt, entitled to be acquittal whole of the evidence to be looked into entirety and not merely special pleading of accused irrespectively of prosecution evidence no conflict between Section 105 and principle laid down in Wool Minton’s case (LR. 1935 ACP 462).
“Per Abdul Rashid, C.J. Section 105 of the Evidence Act has been enacted in order to make it clear that it is not the duty of the prosecution to examine all possible defence that might be taken on behalf of the accused, and to prove that none of those defence would be of any assistance to him. The principles laid down in Wool Minton’s case are applicable with full force in Pakistan in spite of the provisions of Section 105 of the Evidence Act.
(PLD 1953 F.C. 93)
The burden of proof in evidence proceedings always on the prosecution. The burden as it has been called of establishing a case whether by preponderance of evidence or beyond a reasonable doubt and the burden of proof in the sense of introducing evidence. The phrase has been used in the first sense in Article 117 and second sense in Article 118 of the Qanoon-e-Shahadat. It is in this sense that the burden of proving the guilt of a person charged with an offence is on the prosecution and it is in this sense that the accused has a right to silence has relevance. Because the prosecution bear the burden of proving guilt they should discharge it without assistance from the defendant. The initial burden is in the prosecution to frame its case beyond reasonable doubt and that accused is not required to prove his innocence. PLD 1994 S.C. 856).
Sections 302/324/337-A (ii)/34 P.P.C., application of evidence — Guidelines — Defence plea — Practice and procedure–All the factors favouring belief in the accusation must be placed in juxtaposition to the corresponding factors favouring the plea in defence and the total effect should be examined in relation to the question, viz. is the plea/version raised by the accused satisfactorily established by the evidence and circumstances in the case appearing — If the answer be in the affirmative, then the Court must accept the plea of the accused and act accordingly—If the answer to the question be in the negative, then the Court will not reject the defence plea as being false, but will go a step further to find out whether or not there is yet a reasonable possibility of defence plea/version being true — If the Court finds that although the accused has failed to establish his plea to the satisfaction of the Court, yet his plea might reasonably be true, even then the Court must accept his plea and acquit or convict him accordingly 2008 SCMR 1565 at Page 1571.
In criminal case, it is the duty of the Court to review the entire evidence that has been produced by the prosecution and the defence. It, after on examination of the whole evidence the Court is of the opinion that there is reasonable possibility that the defence put forward by the accused might be true, it is clear that such a view reacts on the whole prosecution case in these circumstances, the accused is entitled to the benefit of doubt not as a matter of grace, but as of right, because the prosecution has not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.



Recent Comments