MALIK HAQ NAWAZ, J.---The respondent No, 1 was booked for the offence under section 420/489(F), P.P.C. vide FIR No, 35/2012 of Police Station Danyore.
2. After completion of investigations the case was submitted to the Court of learned Judicial Magistrate who started proceeding of the case on 29-09-2014. The case was fixed for framing of charge but due to consecutive absence of accused/ respondent the charge could not be framed.
The case had been seeing adjournments from 28-02-2015 to 25-05-2015 due to absence of respondent/accused and accused put up his appearance before the Court after a long interval on 05-06-2015 and the learned counsel for respondent submitted an application under section 249-A, Cr.P.C. for acquittal from the charges. The learned trial Court on the same day heard the arguments of the learned counsel of the respondent only and acquitted him from the charges, without any notice to the State/ complainant.
3. The appellant being aggrieved from the order of learned trial Court filed a revision petition in the Court of learned Sessions Judge Gilgit on 11-09-2016. The learned Sessions Judge disposed of the petition as withdrawn and as evident from the order of the learned Sessions Judge, the learned Sessions Judge rightly observed that an acquittal order passed by the learned Judicial Magistrate is not amenable under section 435/439, Cr.P.C. and the appellant has the only remedy by way of filing an appeal under section 417, Cr.P.C.
4. The present appeal has been filed in the above context. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that order of learned trial Court is result of misreading/non-reading of evidence and has been passed in utter violation of law and justice. The learned trial Court did not afford the opportunity of hearing to the State or the appellant which is an in-curable irregularity, hence the order is not sustainable in the eyes of law.
5. On the other hand the learned counsel for respondent defended the order and stated at bar that the appeal is hopelessly time barred and the order has been passed after due deliberation by the trial Court which has attained finality and cannot be disturbed at this stage.
6. I have heard the parties at length and gone through the record of the case. As evident from the order of learned Judicial Magistrate dated 05-06-2015, the petitioner submitted an application on the above date and the same was disposed off without affording an opportunity of hearing to the State counsel, which is an illegality and cannot be blessed under any law. The trial Court is vested with powers under section 249-A, Cr.P.C. to acquit accused at any stage of proceedings even without recording any evidence if in the opinion of the Court the charge against the accused is groundless and there exists no probability of accused being convicted even after a full fledge trial, but at the same time the opportunity of hearing is to be provided to the learned prosecutor. The order has been passed in utter disregard of law, which is set aside as the order is void ab-initio.
Needless to mention here that no limitation is fixed for filing an appeal/revision against a void order.
7. The appeal is allowed and the case is remanded back to the trial Court for further proceedings.
Parties are directed to appear before the trial Court on 21-11-2016 positively. Office is directed to transmit the record of the case to trial Court immediately.