' SYED SAJJAD HUSSAIN SHAH, J.-This criminal revision is directed against the order dated 1-3-2008 passed by a learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bahawalpur, whereby he, while forfeiting the surety bond of the petitioner, imposed a penalty of Rs,12,500 upon the petitioner.
2. Brief facts leading to the institution of the instant petition are that Tahir Mahmood Bashir- petitioner stood surety for Muhammad Farooq Mughal, accused in case F.I.R. No,606/07 registered at Police Station Civil Lines, Bahawalpur. The aforesaid accused jumped over his bail and did not appear before the learned Additional Sessions Judge on 12-12-2007, whereupon his pre-arrest bail application was dismissed and proceedings under section 514, Cr.P.C, were initiated against the petitioner, which culminated into forfeiture of his surety bond and imposition of the impugned penalty.
3. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have also gone through the record.
4. It has been noticed that the above- noted accused was granted ad interim prearrest bail and had appeared before the learned Court below on two dates, i.e, 3-12-2007 and 8-12-2007 but could not appear on the third date, i.e, 12-12-2007 that subsequently, on 19-12-2007, he appeared before this Court and was allowed ad-interim pre-arrest bail. It was been further noticed that there is nothing on record that the petitioner is a professional surety and stood surety for the accused for any monetary benefit, which shows that he stood surety only on humanitarian grounds.
' Besides he is stated to be a student of M.A. And has no source of income. In these circumstances, the penalty imposed upon him appears to be harsh and is liable to the reduced. Accordingly the amount of penalty is reduced to Rs,5,000 which would meet the needs of justice in the circumstances of the case.