PESHAWAR, Oct 17: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday ruled that double jeopardy was not permissible under the Constitution and no person could be tried twice for the same offence.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Miftauddin Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth accepted a writ petition filed by a suspected militant, Maulvi Mohammad Bashir, and his son Zamen Gul, who were convicted by two different courts in tribal areas and Peshawar on charges of kidnapping a person.

The bench declared null and void the trial conducted by the court of judicial magistrate in Peshawar and ruled that only the sentence awarded to them by the assistant political agent in Khyber Agency should be considered.

The petitioners were arrested by the administration in Jamrud, Khyber Agency, on March 27, 2007, on charges of kidnapping a resident of Peshawar, Mohammad Saeed, in connivance with some other accomplices.

The APA, Jamrud, tried them and convicted them on two counts on Sept 10, 2008. They were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment under section 400 of Pakistan Penal Code and also awarded five years imprisonment under section 365. The court ordered that both the sentences should run consecutively.

Later, they were again tried by the court of judicial magistrate on the ground that the kidnapped person was abducted from Peshawar. They were convicted by the magistrate on Jan 8, 2011, and were sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment.

Advocates Noor Alam Khan and Abdur Rehman Khan appeared for the petitioners and contended that they were falsely implicated in the case. They claimed that they were initially picked up on suspicion of being members of a militant group, but later they were charged in the kidnapping case.

They stated that under Article 13 of the Constitution no person should be prosecuted or punished for the same offence more than once.