CRIMINALIZING CIVIL DISPUTES: MISUSE OF SECTIONS 406 AND 420 PPC, EROSION OF DUE PROCESS, AND THE QUEST FOR PROCEDURAL REFORM IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Abstract

There is the rising trend of transforming civil cases into criminal cases which is a grave alteration of Pakistani criminal justice system. The criminal breach of trust and cheating of Section 406 and 420 of the Pakistan penal code which was initially designed to handle deliberate wrongdoing and fraud have increasingly been used to enforce a dispute settlement in those matters which are actually civil in nature. Deals involving property homes, business contracts, partnership or loan deals are often renegotiated as criminal activities, even though the party did not require to defraud the other at the time at which the deal was made. This has led to over criminalization, procedural misuse and undermining due processes. This paper applies a criminological perspective by placing the abuse of Sections 406 and 420 PPC in context within the dynamics of power, coercion and institutional behavior. By relying on conflict and critical criminology theories, it looks at how the availability of police power and selective application can see those in dominant positions use criminal law to their own benefit. The labeling theory is used to examine social, professional, and psychological impact of criminal stigma applied on people involved in non-criminal activity. It also points to institutional motivations in the policing and judicial system of Pakistan that desired arrest, remand, and jailing as the means of pressure and not inquiry. The article, methodologically, uses doctrinal analysis of the statutory provisions, analysis of Supreme Court and High Court jurisprudence and is involved in the established criminology theory. It culminates with a policy agenda reform-oriented featuring procedural protection, responsibility and intent-driven legal thresholds. These reforms are meant to salvage the normative limits of the criminal law and enhance procedural justice of the Pakistani criminal justice system.