Tag: #Criminal Litigation

Criminal Trial in Pakistan

 The process of criminal trials from the reporting of an alleged offence to the conviction or acquittal of an accused over a subsequent charge is as follows:

Cognizable offences are either reported to the police or other law enforcement agencies or anti-corruption bodies, depending on the relevant jurisdiction. The reporting of any such offence takes place through an application which is either written or narrated orally to the competent authority, by virtue of Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 (CrPC). According to S.154 CrPC, once a cognizable offence has been committed, the Station House Officer (SHO), Operations becomes legally bound to register a criminal case against the accused, whenever the relevant information is reported before the SHO.

After the registration of a case, the investigation officer (IO) records the statements of witnesses and collects initial evidence, by virtue of the powers conferred under S.161 CrPC. After completion of the initial investigation, a challan is presented before the trial court under S.173 of the CrPC, following which the trial commences and the court issues notices to present the accused before the jail superintendent, either if the accused has been confined to jail or out on bail. For the accused at large, the court declares them proclaimed offenders, while substitute methods for service of notice are used to summon them, such as through newspaper, etc. The complainant is also summoned and copies of the challan are provided within court premises to the complainant and the accused under section 241-A of CrPc. On the next date of hearing, a formal charge is framed by virtue of section 242 of CrPC and the accused is asked whether he or she has committed the alleged crime. Upon admission of the accused, the magistrate, exercising powers conferred under section 243 of the CrPC, may convict the accused.

The framing of charge marks the commencement of trial. The prosecution is summoned for its evidence and witnesses, which are later cross-examined by the defense, followed by examining any property recovered by the investigators. Once the prosecution has made out its case, the accused may be examined by the court by being asked certain questions before being provided with an opportunity to present evidence. According to Section 342 CrPC:

“For the purpose of enabling the accused to explain any circumstances appearing in the evidence against him, the court may, at any stage of any inquiry or trial without previously warning the accused, put such questions to him as the court considers necessary.”

The defense then submits its evidence and the prosecution gets a chance to cross-examine the defense’s evidence. The trial is then concluded and final arguments are heard, after which a judgment is pronounced by the court.

Two relevant principles on the basis of which criminal cases are to be decided include the presumption of innocence (according to which everyone is presumed innocent unless proven guilty) and the burden of proof (whereby the prosecution has to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt as opposed to civil cases where the burden of proof is based on a balance of probabilities).

Significance of DNA Evidence in Criminal Litigation

DNA evidence has revolutionized the world of forensic sciences in technologically advanced countries. Many of them maintain DNA databases for the investigation of crimes. Many crimes that were once difficult to investigate due to lack of evidence are now being revisited, and offenders are being put behind bars.

Now a days DNA fingerprint technique is used world widely to solve the criminal cases that may be very difficult to solve without it. DNA test is only a part of biological evidences that are very important in the solution of a criminal case. No doubt a judge can make decision only if he has surety about the occurrence of the crime and the persons involved in it. For the identification of culprit, judge may order for forensic test of samples collected by an investigating officer. These material evidences are speechless and non-intelligent evidences, consequently cannot tell a lie, hence have great importance. Such evidences are not new and are being used throughout the history, although modified with the development of awareness and technology and hence their status of accuracy is also increasing day by day.

 It is common in judiciary not to bind the judge with specific legal evidences hence independence in legal evidences is gradually coming common so that the judge may come to an accurate and certain evidence. The purpose of this freedom of evidence is not to restrict the performance of judge by making him sticky with certain evidences, but it aims at maximizing the surety of his decision.

In Pakistan, there is no particular legal framework that specifically deals with DNA evidence, and hence the courts have to maneuver while remaining within the legal framework hitherto available. DNA evidence is evaluated in the context of Articles 59 and 164 of the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984 (‘QSO’). The former provision states that expert opinion on matters such as science and art falls within the ambit of ‘relevant evidence’, whereas the latter provision provides grounds for admissibility of various modes of proof made available due to advancements in science and technology.

Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA), being the largest forensic DNA laboratory in Pakistan, has been helping in solving rape, murder, dead body identification, sibship, and parentage cases. Having started its operations since 2012, PFSA has received approximately 44,417 cases for DNA analysis out of which 36,954 cases have been solved successfully while approximately 7463 cases are pending for several reasons. One of the landmark cases solved in Pakistan is the famous Zainab’s murder case. The suspect had committed 12 cases of sexual assault and murders within a radius of 2.5 km. Extensive crime scene investigation led to the apprehension of the suspect, whose involvement in all the cases was confirmed with the help of DNA testing. A total of 1187 samples were collected for DNA analysis, whereas the 814th sample proved to be of the criminal.

Despite eye-witness importance, Pakistani courts are now relying heavily on DNA-based evidences which are probabilistically measurable and also help in getting rid of false witness statements often encountered in the courts. Zainab’s murder case, solved through DNA analysis, has also led to public awareness regarding the importance of forensic DNA analysis in solving cases. In addition to PFSA, other laboratories working in the country are going towards capacity building. As far as statistical weightage of DNA evidence is concerned, development of local population DNA database, for allele frequency calculation, is still desired in the country.