ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has ordered the agencies concerned to meticulously follow the safeguards it has approved for conducting proper identification parade of accused in a murder case.

In a judgement issued on Monday, the apex court again ratified its earlier guidelines on holding proper identification parade in criminal cases and cited the 1989 Mohammad Yaqoob case in which then judge Khalil-ur-Rehman of the Lahore High Court had elaborated a detailed illustration of the requirements and safeguards necessary for holding a test identification parade. These guidelines were reaffirmed and consolidated by the Supreme Court to avoid confusion about the legal position of a test identification parade in future.

The apex court felt the need for reaffirming the guidelines when Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa summoned former special judicial magistrate of Lahore’s Model Town Kanwar Anwaar Ali, who is currently serving as deputy secretary for planning and development, for showing slackness during the identification parade in a murder case. The court, however, discharged the notice against the judicial officer.

Orders agencies concerned to meticulously follow these safeguards

The illustrations so affirmed suggest that the identification parade, to inspire confidence, must be held at the earliest possible opportunity after the occurrence, since memories fade and visions get blurred with the passage of time. Thus, an identification test, where an unexplained and unreasonably long period has intervened between the occurrence and identification proceedings, should be viewed with suspicion.

Moreover, it is imperative to ensure that, after their arrest, the suspects should be put to identification tests as early as possible and such suspects should preferably not be remanded to police custody in the first instance and should be kept in judicial custody till the identification proceedings are held, the guidelines suggest.

This will avoid the possibility of overzealous investigating officers (IOs) showing the suspects to the witnesses while they are in police custody. Even when these accused persons are to be taken to courts for remand they must be warned to cover their faces so that no witness could see them, the guidelines say.

The identification parades should never be held at police stations and the magistrate, supervising the identification proceedings, must verify the period for which the accused persons have remained in police custody after their arrest and before the test identification and must incorporate this fact in his report. In order to guard against the possibility of a witness identifying an accused person by chance, the number of persons (dummies) to be intermingled with the accused persons should be as much as possible, but then there is also the need to ensure that the number of such persons is not increased to an extent which could have the effect of confusing the identifying witness, the guidelines emphasise.

The superior courts have, through their wisdom and long experience, prescribed that ordinarily the ratio between the accused persons and the dummies should be one to nine or 10. This ratio must be followed unless there are some special justifiable circumstances warranting a deviation from it. And if there are more accused persons than the one who have to be subjected to test identification, separate identification parades should ordinarily be held in respect of each accused person.

It must also be ensured that before a witness has participated in the identification proceedings, he is stationed at a place from where he cannot observe the proceedings and that after his participation he is lodged at a place from where it is not possible for him to communicate with those who have yet to take their turn, the guidelines say.

It should also be ensured that no one witnessing the proceedings, such as the members of the jail staff, etc, is able to communicate with the identifying witnesses, the guidelines suggest, adding that the magistrate conducting the proceedings must take an intelligent interest in the proceedings instead of acting as a silent spectator, bearing in mind at all times that the life and liberty of someone depend only upon his vigilance and caution.

The magistrate is obliged to prepare a list of all the persons (dummies) who form part of the line-up at the parade along with their parentage, occupation and addresses. He must faithfully record all the objections and statements, if any, made either by the accused persons or by the identifying witnesses before, during or after the proceedings, the guidelines elaborate.

And where a witness correctly identifies an accused person, the magistrate must ask the witness about the connection in which the witness has identified that person as a friend, as a foe or as a culprit of an offence, etc, and then incorporate this statement in his report. And if the witness identifies a person wrongly, the magistrate must so record in his report and should also state the number of persons wrongly picked by the witness. The magistrate is also required to record all the precautions taken by him for a fair conduct of the proceedings and should also issue a certificate at the end of his report, the guidelines say.

The chief justice also ordered the Supreme Court office to dispatch copies of the order to the registrars of all high courts with a directive to send them to every judge and magistrate within the jurisdiction of each high court handling criminal cases at all levels.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2019