The petitioners have applied for grant of bail in a case registered against the petitioners and two unknown persons vide F.I.R. No. 163, dated 5.5.1996 for an offence under Sections 302/324/148/148 and 109 of the PPC at P.S. Saddar Samundri, District Faisalabad.
2. At the time of occurrence Abdul Ghani, petitioner No.1, Muhammad Javed. Petitioner No.2 were armed with guns and Muhammad Ramazan, petitioner No.3 with a 222-bore rifle and all of them had effectively find at Faryad Ali and Sajjad Ali, deceased. They also caused injuries to Wali Muhammad PW.
3. Bail is claimed primarily on the ground of delay in conclusion of the trial. The petitioners were arrested on 18.6.1996 and the challan was submitted in the Court of the learned Sessions Judge, Faisalabad on 27.10.1996, who entrusted the same to the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Samundri vide order dated 13.11.1996'. Before the said Court no progress could be made in the trial because the accused persons had been obtaining adjournments for about 6 months to appoint a defence counsel. Then the case was sent to the Special Court constituted under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on 13.9.1997. The Special Court started proceedings on 15.11.1997 and summoned the accused persons. The case was taken up on 17.11.1997 when the petitioners' counsel was not available. On 18.11.1997 the case was adjourned for framing of charge on 25.11.1997. On 25.11.1997 a number of PWs were present although it was not a date find for recording of evidence. On the said date, the case was adjourned on the request of complainant's counsel for 3.12.1997. On that date the Court Was busy in another case and adjourned the case for 13.12.1997. The charge was framed against the accused persons on 13.12.1997. The case was adjourned on a few dates and then on 8.1.1998 the Special Court sent the case back to the learned Sessions Judge, Faisalabad. The case remained pending before the learned Addl. Sessions Judge, Samundri when again the learned Addl. Sessions Judge sent it to the learned Sessions Judge on the ground that a 222-bore rifle was used in committing the crime, therefore, the case was triable by a Special Court constituted under the Suppression of Terrorist Activities Act, 1975. Accordingly, the learned Sessions Judge forwarded the case to the learned Special Court vide order dated 14.4.1998. The proceedings commenced before the Special Court (S.T.A) Faisalabad on 13.5.1998. However, no appreciable progress was made in the trial and the case is lingering on an application for deciding the question of jurisdiction of the Court.
4. Keeping in view all the facts and circumstances of the1 case, we are not persuaded to allow bail to the petitioners at this stage on the ground of delay in conclusion of the trial. As mentioned above, originally the petitioners had obtained a number of adjournments and wasted about six months for engaging a counsel. Thereafter, the case was sent from the ordinary Court to a Special Court and again from the Special Court to the ordinary Court. For this State of affairs,, even the prosecution cannot be blamed. At present the matter is pending before the Special Court which has to decide an application regarding its jurisdiction to try the case. The Special Court is directed to decide the application involving question of jurisdiction of the Court expeditiously, preferably within a period of two months of the receipt of the order. The petition is dismissed with the above direction.