Acquitted Citizens Should Not Carry an FIR on Their Character Certificate, IHC Rules
Court orders removal of a Shalimar case reference and directs Islamabad police to establish a procedure.
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has ruled that police character certificates must not mention an FIR relating to a case that has ended in a final acquittal, directing the Islamabad police chief to establish a procedure to protect citizens from having to seek individual court orders.
Justice Ayaz Shaukat issued the ruling while allowing a citizen’s petition challenging the inclusion of a case registered at Shalimar police station in his police character certificate.
According to the details of the decision, the court declared the certificate initially issued to the petitioner unlawful and directed that the reference to the FIR be removed.
The court held that there was no legal justification for carrying an FIR into a police character certificate once the proceedings had concluded in an acquittal that had attained finality.
It distinguished between retaining information in internal police records and disclosing that information in a certificate issued to a citizen for use abroad. Police may preserve records for lawful internal purposes, but that does not justify continuing to reflect an acquitted case in the citizen’s character certificate.
The court observed that a person acquitted by a competent court could not continue to be presented as someone carrying criminal liability.
Police Directed to Establish a Procedure
The court directed the Inspector General of Islamabad Police to devise a procedure addressing such cases, observing that citizens should not be compelled to approach the courts to obtain a right the law already recognises.
The direction addresses the administrative handling of certificates where the relevant criminal proceedings have ended in a final acquittal.
The ruling does not require the deletion of the underlying FIR from internal police records. Its central distinction concerns what police may retain for lawful official purposes and what they may disclose on a citizen’s character certificate after acquittal.
Certificate Misrepresented Petitioner’s Legal Status
The court also took exception to the wording used in the petitioner’s certificate.
According to the supplied case details, the certificate stated that the petitioner had been discharged during the investigation and that the court had agreed with that outcome. The IHC found that description incorrect because it did not accurately reflect the petitioner’s acquittal.
Describing the petitioner as merely discharged diminished the legal effect of the acquittal, the court held.
The court linked the continued inclusion of the acquitted case in the certificate to violations of constitutional protections under Articles 4, 9, 14 and 15, concerning treatment in accordance with law, security of person, human dignity and freedom of movement.
Allowing the petition, the court ordered the removal of the Shalimar police station FIR reference from the petitioner’s character certificate and directed police to address the wider procedural issue.
