Sindh Prosecutor General, Rangers warned against filing frivolous appeals

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday warned Sindh Prosecutor General and DA JAG Rangers against filing frivolous appeals against acquittals by various courts and observed that action might be taken on filing of such appeals.

The warning came from a two-member bench headed by Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha while hearing appeals filed against acquittals of Ubaid K2 and others by various anti-terrorism courts.

When the court took up 14 appeals for hearing it was apprised that special public prosecutor who was assigned the appeals was out of province on leave.

The bench observed, “We have also noted that countless frivolous appeals against acquittal are being filed by the Prosecutor General office either itself or on the recommendations of the DA JAG Rangers. It is well known that appeals against acquittal are on narrow basis and they should only be filed if there are good reasons which justify the appeals.”

The bench noted that such appeals should not be filed in a routine and in a mechanical manner unless there is some legal basis for their filing.

“If we come to the conclusion that appeals are being filed on frivolous basis, this court might take necessary action against the person who is authorizing to file such frivolous appeals which unnecessarily clog up the work of this court,” the bench warned.

Furthermore, the bench observed, in most of the cases compliance is not made on time and these appeals have been clogging the system for years.

The bench directed the office of the court to send a copy of the order to Prosecutor General Sindh and DA JAG Rangers for information and compliance.

The office was also directed to place copy of the order in all the connected files.

The deferred hearing of appeals for three months.