The much debated 9- month long Avenfield case pertaining to the purchase of four flats in Park Lane, London by the Sharif family was finally concluded by the Accountability court. Everyone knows the result of the judgment. Since the pronouncement of the judgment, commentators on TV and some lawyers have been advising the convicts to present protective bail before the High Court before their arrests take place. This is legally incorrect. There is no concept of protective bail in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 upon the conviction of accused. Under Cr.Pc protective bail is only granted to the accused after the registration of formal F.I.R, when he surrenders himself before the court and satisfies the court that such an arrest would amount to victimization, disgrace and dishonor etc.
There are certain remedies available to the convict. In this regard, Section 32(a) says that “Any party to the proceedings aggrieved by the final judgment and order of the court under this Ordinance may, within 10 days of the final Judgment and order of the Accountability Court prefer an appeal to the High Court of the province where court is situated”. However, it is pertinent to mention here that the accused shall have to surrender themselves before the legal authorities within a prescribed period of time if they want to avail a statutory right of appeal.
It has also been asked by many on commentators on TV and on social media that if the High Court entertains the appeal presented to it by the convicts, does the court have the power to suspend the judgment of the Accountability Court? Again, there is a no provision in Cr.Pc which deals with the suspension of judgment of this court. Cr.Pc 1898 only deals with suspension of sentence in appeal which is distinct from the term suspension of judgment. In this connection, section 426[(2-A)] says that Subject to the provisions of section 382-A when any person Other than a person accused of a non-bailable offence is sentenced to imprisonment by a court and an appeal lies that sentence, the court may, if convicted person satisfies that he intends to present an appeal order that he be released on bail,for a period sufficient in the opinion of the court to enable him to present the appeal and obtain the orders of the Appellate court under sub-section (1) and the sentence of imprisonment shall, so long as he is so released on bail, be deemed to be suspended.
So we can draw an inference from section 426(2-A) of Cr.Pc that the High court, in case of appeal filed by Appellant, may or may not suspend the sentence of the person convicted by the subordinate court, not the judgment rendered by the latter court.