Five IHC judges move SC against misuse of authority within judiciary

ISLAMABAD: Five Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges on Friday reached the Supreme Court (SC) to file separate petitions against the unconstitutional use of administrative authority within the judiciary.

The judges, namely Justices Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Babar Sattar, Tariq Mah­mood Jahangiri, Saman Rifat, and Ejaz Ishaq Khan, moved to the apex court.

The judges moved to declare that administrative powers could not be “deployed to undermine or trump the judicial powers” of the high court judges.

They further asked the apex court to declare that a chief justice of the high court was not authorised to constitute benches or transfer cases once a high court bench had been assigned a case.

It was further said that the Chief Justice of the High Court is not authorized to constitute new benches or transfer cases when a case has been assigned to a bench.

The petitions also said that the Chief Justice cannot remove available judges from the list at his own will, nor can he use this power to remove judges from judicial duties.

The Supreme Court was also told that the constitution of benches, transfer of cases, and issuance of lists can be done only in accordance with the rules made with the approval of all the judges of the High Court, which are adopted under Articles 202 and 192(1) of the Constitution.

The petitioners further pleaded that the decision-making regarding the constitution of benches, roster of High Court rules, and transfer of cases cannot be solely in the power of the Chief Justice, and the principle of Master of the Roster has been abolished in the judgments of the Supreme Court.

The petitions also said that the administrative committees constituted by the notifications issued on February 3 and July 15, and their actions are based on legal malice, illegal and void.

The court was urged to declare these notifications and all the actions of the committees illegal.