SC returns IHC judges’ petition with objections

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has returned the constitutional petitions of 5 judges of the Islamabad High Court with objections.

According to sources, the Supreme Court Registrar’s Office has raised objections to the petitions.

According to the objections raised, the petitioner did not clarify what public interest issue is in the petitions, which fundamental rights were affected, and why the scope of Article 184/3 should be used.

The petitioners filed the petitions under the extraordinary scope of Article 184/3 based on a personal grudge.

The Registrar objected that the Supreme Court’s Zulfiqar Mehdi vs. PIA case does not allow filing a petition under Article 184/3 based on a personal grudge, and the ingredients of the Article 184/3 petition were not fulfilled.

The judges did not state a concrete reason for filing the constitutional petition, nor did they explain the reasons for the notices.

Earlier, 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.