• Court dismisses petitions challenging double-murder convictions
• Verdict explains that closing eyes of a corpse is ‘religious’ custom, not legal duty
ISLAMABAD:
asserted
closing → dismiss → corpse
The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the condition of a deceased person’s eyes at the time of death cannot conclusively establish the fact that the incident was not witnessed.
asserted
incident → rule → fact
The Qanun-i-Shahadat Order, 1984, does not impose a legal duty to close a deceased person’s eyes.
asserted
Order → impose → eyes
Rather, the practice is customary and religious, observed Justice Salahuddin Panhwar while dismissing jail petitions filed by Azmat Ullah alias Motu and Muhammad Luqman alias Gona.
asserted
Panhwar → observe → Ullah
The petitioners had challenged their convictions in a 2011 double-murder case, upheld by the Lahore High Court (LHC) on May 18, 2022.
uncertain
petitioners → challenge → May
Justice Panhwar was part of a three-member bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar.
asserted
Panhwar → head → Kakar
The bench upheld the convictions under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code but maintained the high court’s decision to commute the death sentences to life imprisonment.
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bench → uphold → imprisonment
In criminal trials, defence lawyers often argue that an incident was ‘unwitnessed’ if the post-mortem report records the deceased’s eyes as open, reasoning that close relatives would ordinarily close them after death.
asserted
relatives → argue → death
During the hearing, the petitioners’ counsel pointed to discrepancies in eyewitness statements and argued that the post-mortem and inquest reports, which recorded the eyes of both victims as open, indicated that the murders had not been witnessed.
asserted
murders → point → victims
Article 129 versus rigid presumptions
In a nine-page judgement, Justice Panhwar referred to Article 129 of the Qanun-i-Shahadat Order, which allows courts to presume facts they consider likely in the circumstances of a particular case.
asserted
they → refer → case
However, the judgement stressed that human behaviour could not be assessed in a vacuum or through rigid assumptions.
uncertain
behaviour → stress → assumptions
Responses to trauma, terror and violent loss vary from person to person, making it unsafe to draw categorical conclusions from a single circumstance.
asserted
it → vary → circumstance
It noted that relatives witnessing a gruesome incident may be overwhelmed by shock and trauma.
uncertain
relatives → note → shock
Hoping their loved one might survive, they may focus on obtaining urgent medical assistance rather than performing customary rituals associated with death.
uncertain
they → hop → death
Relatives and bystanders may also continue treating the victim as injured until a doctor or police official confirms death, which may not be immediately apparent at the scene.
uncertain
which → continue → scene
From a forensic perspective, the position of the eyelids is governed by physiological processes rather than the presence or absence of witnesses, the judgement explained.
asserted
judgement → govern → witnesses
Following death, muscles initially become relaxed, allowing eyelids to remain open or partially open, a condition known as lagophthalmos.
Handling or moving a body may also cause previously closed eyes to reopen, particularly before rigor mortis develops.
uncertain
mortis → follow → body
As rigor mortis sets in, muscles become stiff and retain their prevailing position.
asserted
muscles → set → position
The court also cited Locard’s Exchange Principle, which holds that every contact leaves a trace.
asserted
contact → cite → trace
Relatives, bystanders and rescue workers may avoid touching a body to prevent contamination or disturbance of blood-spatter patterns, trace evidence and DNA material before forensic experts arrive.
uncertain
experts → avoid → patterns
It would therefore be unsafe to presume that every person knows how to handle a deceased body or feels obliged to close the eyes, the judgement said.
asserted
judgement → presume → eyes
Concluding that neither forensic literature nor the law recognises closed eyes as an indicator of a witnessed death, the court rejected the argument that open eyelids alone could establish that a crime was unwitnessed.
uncertain
crime → conclude → argument
The judgement further observed that minor discrepancies and natural variations in eyewitness accounts, arising from the passage of time and the rigours of cross-examination, do not undermine otherwise credible and consistent testimony.
asserted
discrepancies → observe → testimony
The Aporia
