ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court has reaffirmed the well-established principle that interference with an acquittal is an unusual procedure and can only be justified when the prosecution demonstrates obvious errors of law or fact showing that the acquittal is manifestly flawed and based on shocking conclusions.
In a seven-page judgment authored by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, the Supreme Court noted that an acquittal carries a “double presumption of innocence” and that even a single circumstance creating reasonable doubt is sufficient to entitle an accused to the benefit of that doubt.
“It is not mandatory that there must be numerous after-effects that give rise to doubt to justify the benefit to the accused; rather, a single circumstance, if it creates reasonable doubt, is enough to give him a benefit,” the judgment said.
The decision was made in a case involving two defendants who had been acquitted by a court. The Sindh High Court (SHC) later set aside the acquittal and remanded the case to the High Court for a fresh trial in accordance with law.
The accused challenged the SHC’s order before the Supreme Court.
A Division Bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar held that where two reasonable and considered inferences can reasonably be drawn from the evidence in a criminal case, the inference favoring acquittal must prevail.
The court noted that an appellate court hearing an appeal of acquittal should ordinarily refrain from interfering with the trial court’s findings because an acquittal reinforces the preexisting presumption of innocence.
