Law: Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898)

Section: 156,156(2)

Law: Law Reforms Ordinance, 1972

Section: 3(1)

Law: Pakistan Penal Code, 1860

Section: 302,34

(a) Penal Code (XLV of 1860)--------Ss. 420/468/471---Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898), S.156---Constitution of Pakistan (1973), Art.199---Constitutional petition---Stay of investigation due to pendency of civil suit on the same subject-matter---Validity---D.I.G. on the legal advice of DSP had stopped the investigation in the F.I.R. on the basis that regarding the same property civil suit was pending before a Civil Court and criminal proceedings could not continue---Application of the petitioner against the said action of D.I.G. had been dismissed by the Sessions Court through the impugned order---Validity---Investigation of a case was not synonymous or interchangeable with the "proceedings" before a competent Criminal Court---Term `proceedings' was very comprehensive and meant a prescribed course of action for enforcing the legal right and necessarily embraced the requisite steps invoking judicial action---"Proceeding" would include every step taken towards the further progress of a cause in Court or before a Tribunal pending there---No proceedings in the present case were pending before a Criminal Court and the matter was still at investigation stage with regard to forgery of the sale-deed, which issue was also pending in the Civil Court---D.I.-G. had wrongly treated investigation before the Investigating Officer as "proceedings" before the Court of law and therefore had stayed the same and Sessions Court had also passed the erroneous order---Impugned order was consequently set aside with the direction to D.I.-G. and Investigating Officer to complete the investigation in accordance with law and submit the final report before the competent Court within the stipulated period---Whether proceedings before the Criminal Court would be legal or desirable before the completion of proceedings before the Civil Court, would be decided by the Criminal Court only at that stage---Constitutional petition was allowed accordingly. PLD 2006 SC 771; 1982 SCMR 988; Muhammad Dildar Hussain v. Civil Judge/Judicial Magistrate 2000 PCr.LJ 43; PLD 2003 Kar. 309 and PLD 2005 Kar. 125 distinguished.Nawaz-ul-Haq Chohan v. The State 2003 SCMR 1597; Ch. Zahoor Elahi v. The State…