' Respondent No,2 Raja Muhammad Ais son of Raja Said Akbar has charged the petitioner for having committed an offence punishable under section 324, Qisas and Diyat Ordinance vide F.I.R.
No,95 lodged in Police Station Khanaspur Ayubia on 8-9-1994 at 21-00 hours. He has alleged in the said F.I.R. That he was fired upon by the petitioner with a pistol on 8-9-1994 at 6-30 p.m. With which he was hit on his leg. He further stated that the occurrence was witnessed by the villagers including the women and his son Mohib-ur-Rehman.
2. The petitioner was granted bail by Magistrate 1st Class E.A.C. IV, Abbottabad vide, his order dated 27-10-1994 but the same was recalled by the Sessions Judge, Abbottabad on 21-11-1994 mainly on the grounds that the accused was directly charged in the F.I.R. For having attempted at the life of the complainant by firing at him with a revolver effectively and with which he was hit on his left thigh. The Sessions Judge further came to the conclusion that the medical evidence available on the record duly supported the version of the complainant and that the occurrence, which took place in the broad daylight, was witnessed by the P.Ws. Including Mohib-ur-Rehman son of the complainant. He, therefore, held that reasonable grounds do exist for believing that the petitioner has committed a non-bailable offence and, therefore, the lower forum was not justified in allowing bail to the accused petitioner and that the order of the lower Court was perverse which was accordingly recalled.
3. Malik Amjad Ali and Ghulam Mohy-ud-Din, Advocates for the petitioner, Mr. Muhammad Ayub Khan, Advocate for the State and Mr. Fazale-Haq Abbasi, Advocate for the complainant present and heard. I have also perused the record of the case.
4. The learned counsel for the parties agreed that the injury sustained by the complainant/respondent No,2 was simple in nature although this fact is not mentioned in the medico-legal report which is available on the file. The Dr. (Tahir Khilji, C.M.O. D.H.Q. Hospital, Abbottabad) who had examined the complainant/respondent No,2, in the first instance, has not opined as to the nature of the injury and had merely stated that the nature of the injury would be ascertained after the X-ray report. X-ray report is however, not available on the file, therefore, there is nothing on the record to suggest anything about the nature of the injury.
5. Since the learned counsel for the parties have admitted that the respondent No,2/complainant had sustained simple injury, as stated above, on his thigh therefore, his case would apparently fall within the mischief of section 337-F, P.P.C. The punishments for various hurts under section 337-F range from one year to 7 years' R.I. As Tazir.
6. I agree with the learned Sessions Judge that a person who is charged for having committed a non-bailable offence is not entitled to be released on bail as of right but it has probably escaped the notice of the learned Sessions Judge that grant of bail in offences punishable with imprisonment for less than 10 years is a rule and refusal an exception. The exceptional and extraordinary cases where bail is declined in cases of offence punishable with imprisonment of less than 10 years are enumerated as under:--
(a) Where there is likelihood of abscondence of the accused;
(b) Where there is apprehension of the accused tampering with the prosecution evidence;
(c) where there is danger of the offence being repeated if the accused is released on bail; and
(d) where the accused is a previous convict.
7. In holding the above view I am fortified by a case Tariq Bashir and 5 others v. The State reported in PLD 1995 SC 34.
8. Since the petitioner is not a previous convict, there is no danger of his repeating the offence in question and there is no apprehension of his absconsion or tampering with the prosecution evidence, therefore, he is admitted to bail and shall be released forthwith if not required in any other case provided he furnishes bail bond in the sum of Rs,1,00,000 (one lac) with two sureties, each in the like amount, to the satisfaction of Additional Registrar of this Court.
9. The Additional Registrar shall see that the sureties are respectable persons who belong to the settled area of Abbottabad and are men of means having sufficient property in their names. The bail bonds shall be taken in duplicate and one of the same shall be placed on file of this Court alongwith the relevant documents i,e,, property documents, photostat copies of the identity cards etc. Etc. For record.