ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has set aside the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) order of June 11, 2018, which raised the length of the jail term of a former additional district and sessions judge found guilty of torturing a child maidservant.

The judgement, announced by a bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam on Friday, observed that the Supreme Court raises the sentence of a convict only in cases where there has been a blatant miscarriage of justice.

The verdict was authored by Justice Yahya Afridi.

The Supreme Court had taken up a set of three appeals moved by a former additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ), Raja Khurram Ali Khan, and his wife Maheen Zafar, who were accused of torturing Tayyaba, the minor maidservant who had been working in their house, as well as a separate appeal moved by the state for raising the sentence.

Tayyaba had been working in the home of former ADSJ Raja Khurram Ali Khan in Islamabad’s Sector I-8/1 for the past few years.

On Dec 28, 2016, someone from the neighbourhood called the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau’s office in Rawalpindi to inform it about Tayyaba’s mistreatment.

Referring to the state’s appeal for enhancement of the sentence, the court observed that there was sufficient evidence to grant the request for raising the sentence awarded to Raja Khurram Ali Khan and Maheen Zafar for commission of the offence, punishable under Section 328-A of the Pakistan Penal Code

The section deals with offences relating to cruelty inflicted on a child. The provisions suggest that the sentence to an offender should not be less than one year and may extend to three years if that person wilfully assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons or does an act of omission or commission that has the potential to harm or injure a child by causing physical or psychological injury.

The Supreme Court, exercising its jurisdiction under Article 187 of the Constitution, asked Raja Khurram and his wife Maheen Zafar to explain why their sentences should not be enhanced.

On June 11, 2018, a division bench of the IHC had enhanced to three years from one year the sentence awarded by a single bench of the same court on March 26 of that year in the Tayyaba torture case.

The Supreme Court took notice of Tayyaba’s torture upon media reports that the girl’s parents had reached a patch-up with the accused in Jan 2017 to draw a curtain over the episode. The apex court had observed that matters relating to fundamental rights cannot be settled out of court.

According to media reports, the little girl was beaten up brutally and hands were singed, but the matter was hushed up after the two parties reached a compromise.

The Supreme Court judgement set aside the quantum of conviction under Section 328-A of the PPC from one year simple imprisonment to that of three years given by the IHC with an observation that the division bench of the high court lacked jurisdiction to enhance the sentence.

The enhancement of sentence awarded to the accused-convicts for the offence under Section 328-A of the PPC by the division bench of the high court was without lawful jurisdiction and of no legal effect, the verdict concluded.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2020