15/04/2026
PLD 2026 SC 37
2026 PLC(CS) 233
Whether a person's status as an Absconder in a criminal case can operate as a bar to the pursuit of civil or service-law remedies---Legality---The right of access to justice cannot be curtailed merely because a person stands accused, or has absconded, in another domain of law.
Abscondence in criminal proceedings---Person's status as a proclaimed offender---Effect upon his right to pursue civil or service remedies---Its legal consequences would be confined to the criminal sphere only---Criminal fugitivity and civil adjudication of rights---Highlighted as two distinct legal domains---Brief facts of the matter were that the petitioners were appointed as 'junior vernacular teachers' nearly twenty-five years ago, but their appointments were later declared bogus by the education department resulting in stoppage of their salaries, though no formal removal order had yet been passed and their service appeal seeking release of salaries was dismissed by the Punjab Service Tribunal solely on the ground that they were Absconder s in a separate criminal case---Pivotal issue requiring determination before the Supreme Court was as to "whether the status of an Absconder or fugitive in a criminal case, by itself, barred or disentitled a person from pursuing civil or service law remedies before a competent forum?"---Held: Principle that a fugitive or Absconder could not invoke courts appellate jurisdiction in a criminal matter was strictly confined to criminal proceedings and its extension into civil, family, or service-law contexts found no support in either doctrine or policy---Civil and service adjudications determined rights over property, employment, or entitlements that were enforceable irrespective of the claimant's physical custody, and the litigant's absence seldom frustrated the process or its execution---Unless a statute expressly provided otherwise or the fugitivity demonstrably obstructed adjudication, abscondence in a criminal matter could not extinguish or suspend independent civil or service rights---Any disadvantage arising from the status of a proclaimed offender ordinarily attached only to the very case in which the proclamation was issued and did not extend to other matters lacking nexus to that proceeding---Accordingly, a proclaimed offender could not, merely by virtue of that status, be barred from instituting or defending a civil suit or prosecuting an appeal concerning his civil rights and obligations---To dismiss the petitioners solely based on their alleged abscondence was, therefore, a clear misapplication of law, as it conflated two distinct jurisdictions and deprived the petitioners of adjudication on issues squarely within their civil and service rights---
ALLAH DIWAYA VS DIRECTOR EDUCATION QUETTA
