Through this constitutional petition, the impugned order dated 28.01.2012 passed by the learned Addl: Sessions Judge/Ex-Officio Justice of Peace Alipur has been assailed whereby application of the petitioner under Section 22-A Cr.P.C. for registration of case was dismissed.
2. The learned counsel contends that the said order has been based on the report of the police unlawfully and the impugned order is not sustainable in the eye of law as the contents of the petition moved by the petitioner disclosed the information about the commission of a cognizable offence.
3. I have considered the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the petitioner.
4. Admittedly, the role of Ex-Officio Justice of Peace ministerial and administrative in nature. The duties and functions of the ex-officio Justice of Peace have been elaborated in "PLD 2007 SC 539"
(Muhammad Bashir versus Station House Officer, Okara Cantt and others) which provides the guidelines for the ex-officio Justice of Peace. The apex Court held as under: "the only jurisdiction, which could be exercised by an ex-officio Justice of Peace under Section 22-A
(6) Cr.P.C. was to examine whether the information disclosed by the applicant did or did not constitute a cognizable offence and if it did then to direct the concerned S.H.O. to record the F.I.R without going into the veracity of the information in question, and no more. Offering any other interpretation to Section 22-A (6) Cr.P.C. would be doing violence to the entire scheme of Criminal Procedure Code, which could not be permitted".
5. In the light of the case law referred to above, the learned Ex-Officio Justice of Peace was not supposed to conduct any inquiry or determine the veracity or falsehood of the allegations contained in the petition. The only duty cast upon the learned Ex-Officio Justice Peace was to see as to whether the contents of the petition revealed the commission of a cognizable offence or not and in case the petition contains the information constituting a cognizable offence, the learned Ex- Officio Justice Peace is bound to direct the SHO to proceed in accordance with law. Similarly, the police has no authority to conduct any inquiry before registration of the case and the learned Ex- Officio Justice of Peace could not base his order on the illegal proceedings of the police. In the light of above discussion, the impugned order is not sustainable in the eye of law so the same is hereby set aside and the SHO concerned is directed to record the version of the petitioner and proceed further with the matter strictly in accordance with the law keeping in view the provisions of Section 154 Cr.P.C.