' An incident took place on 1-9-1975 in Chak Koka of Tehsil Chakwal during the course of which Mst.
Mehr Bharri on the one side and Ghulam Ali from the other were seriously injured. On the same day on the statement of Ghulam Ali a case was registered at Police Station Nila against Muhammad Nawaz and Muhammad Safdar, petitioners Nos. 3 and 4, under section 307 read with section 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Nine months later Ghulam Ali died as a result of the injuries received by him. Consequently petitioners Nos. 3 and 4 were charged with an offence under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
2. Petitioner No,1 also tried to get a counter-.Case registered against respondent No,1 for causing grievous hurt to Mst, Mehr Bharri but the local Police Officer declined to oblige him. Upon this he filed a private complaint but this was dismissed by a local Magistrate after recording some preliminary evidence.
3. In this writ petition the petitioners have prayed for a writ of Mandamus calling upon respondents Nos. 1 to 4 to register the counter-case and for a writ of certiorari for the setting aside of the order of dismissal recorded on the private complaint of petitioner No,1.
4. There are two serious objections to the competency of this writ petition. The first is that although the occurrence took place on 1-9-1975 this writ petition was not filed till 22-7-1976. Thus, there is delay of more than 10 months and the petition suffers from laches. The second objection is that the petitioners have already chosen to seek their remedy by filing a private complaint. This complaint has since been dismissed. At this stage, therefore, no useful purpose can be served by directing the registration of a cross-case.
5. As regards the dismissal of the private complaint the petitioners have remedy in approaching the Court of Sessions. If the petitioners can satisfy the learned Sessions Judge that their complaint was dismissed without any basis the learned Sessions Judge will be in a position to order a further inquiry into the matter.
6. For the reasons stated above I find no merit in this writ petition which is hereby dismissed in limine.