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West Pakistan Criminal Law (Amendment) Act (VII of 1963), S. 3-Reference to Tribunal-Order of reference made by Commis­sioner without hearing accused-Held, illegal. Home Secretary to the Government of West Pakistan, Lahore v. Jan Muhammad and another P L D 1969 S C 333 fol. Khalilur Rehman, Advocate-on-Record for Appellants. Rustam S. Sidhwa, Advocate Supreme Court instructed by Ijaz Ali, Advocate-on-Record (absent) for Respondents. Date of hearing : 2nd December 1971. JUDGMENT SAJJAD AHMAD, J.-A case under section lti7-8/9 of the Sea/Land Customs Act was registered against the appellants, and was referred by the Commissioner, Lahore Division, for trial by a tribunal under the West Pakistan Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1963 (hereinafter described as `the Act'). The appellants challenged this order by a writ petition in the former High Court of West Pakistan, Lahore, on the ground that the reference was invalid as the appellants were not heard by the Commissioner before the order of reference was made. The writ petition was dismissed. Special leave to appeal was granted by this Court to the appellants on the 20th of February 1968, as in the meantime a full Bench of the High Court held in the case of Jan Muhammad v. The Home Secretary, West Pakistan, that a reference of a case to the tribunal for trial of an accused person under section 3 of the Act, without giving him an opportunity to show cause against it, was illegal. The same case came up before this Court in Civil Appeal No. 12 of 1968, in which the view of the full Bench has been affirmed by this Court by its decision reported as Home Secretary to the Government of West Pakistan, Lahore v. Jan Muhammad and another (PLD1969SC333). Another point -on which leave to appeal was granted, was that the Sea…

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