General Guidelines/ Direction to the Police Department.


In number of cases it has been observed that writ petitions are filed before this Court to seek implementation of orders passed by the learned Ex-officio Justice of Peace. In general it has been noticed that earlier the learned Justice of Peace issues direction to the SHO concerned for (i) registration of case or for recording version of the petitioner in accordance with law, or (ii) proceedings on application of the petitioner. But, these orders are not implemented, whereupon, the concerned party approached the learned Ex-officio Justice of Peace again to seek implementation of the orders, and on this second move direction to some senior officer or even to the CCPO is issued. The orders passed by learned Justice of Peach when still remain unimplemented and as a last resort the aggrieved party files writ petition before this Court to get the orders of learned Ex-officio Justice of Peace implemented. Thus, one way or the other this Court is overburdened just because of inaction on the part of the concerned quarters in police department. Faced with this situation, following directions are issued to all the CPOs/DPOs throughout the Province of Punjab, as guideline, with direction to get the same implemented by their subordinates:--


(i)            Any order passed by a Judicial Officer even in exercise of his jurisdiction on administrative side, must be followed by concerned authorities, if the same otherwise, holds the field;

(ii)           When direction by learned Ex-officio Justice of Peace is passed in the above terms and the information received by the SHO discloses commission of a cognizable offence, he shall proceed under section 154, Cr.P.C. and if the information discloses commission of a non-cognizable offence then the SHO shall proceed under section 155, Cr.P.C;

(iii)          If after registration of case in a cognizable offence, concerned police official has information or other intelligence relating to the alleged commission of cognizable offence, on the basis of which he has reason to suspect that alleged offence has not been committed, he shall enter information or other substance in the police station daily diary register and shall also record his reasons for suspecting that such offence has not been committed and shall also inform to the informant, if any, the fact that he will not investigate the case and shall also submit his report to the concerned Magistrate having the jurisdiction to take cognizance of such offence through senior official;

(iv)         If the case is registered under section 295-C, P.P.C. then Incharge Police Station shall immediately forward the police file to the S.P. (Investigation), as required under section 156(A), Cr.P.C. and in case of Offence of Zina under Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, he shall also forward the file to S.P concerned for investigation;

(v)          Considering alarmingly high ratio of reports/complaints, in recent past, with regard to injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult. the religion of any class (Section 295, P.P.C.), deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religions feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs (Section 295-A, P.P.C.), as well allegations of defiling, etc of copy of Holy Quran (Section 295-B, P.P.C.), keeping in mind our social atmosphere and religious impact of such complaints in general public irrespective of truthfulness of such allegations, it is recommended that the accusations defined by sections 295, 295-A and 295-B, P.P.C., must also be probed/inquired into by high rank police officers not below the rank of Superintendent of Police, so as to maintain public confidence on investigation system;

(vi)         If after registration of cognizable offence under section 154, Cr.P.C. the concerned police official does not proceed under section 157(2), Cr.P.C. read with rule 24.4 of Police Rules, then he shall proceed for investigation of the case or refer the matter to any other official competent to investigate the same;

(vii)        The Investigating Officer after collecting evidence if feels that sufficient material is not available to connect the accused person(s) with commission of crime, he will defer the arrest of nominated accused or release the accused on bond under section 169, Cr.P.C;

(viii)       If the Investigating Officer finally concludes that although offence has been committed but there is no iota of evidence available to connect all or any of the accused with commission of crime, he shall submit discharge report before the learned Ilaqa Magistrate, accordingly, but shall proceed against the remaining accused against whom sufficient evidence is available, strictly in accordance with law;

(ix)         The Investigating Officer if concludes that no such occurrence has taken place and a false case has been registered and sufficient evidence has been collected in this regard to negate the stance of the complainant, he shall submit cancellation report before the learned Ilaqa Magistrate for proceeding on the same in accordance with law;

(x)          If the learned Ilaqa Magistrate agrees with cancellation report then the police authorities must proceed against the complainant or the informer under section 182, Cr.P.C.

2.            At this stage the CCPO, Lahore submits that he will ensure meticulous compliance of directions issued by this Court and will make sure that in future all orders passed by learned Ex-officio Justice of Peace, including the order dated 30-9-2014 subject matter of instant writ petition, must be implemented in letter and spirit. This writ petition is disposed of.

3.            Office is directed to circulate copy of this order to the CPOs/DPOs, throughout the Province of Punjab and to all other concerned, for adherence.



Haider Ali and another v. DPO Chakwal and others (2015 S C M R 1724) by Khawaja, J. Jawwad S., Khan, J. Dost Muhammat Khan and Isa, J. Qazi Faez
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