The Supreme Court has withdrawn a contempt notice issued to Nazar Abbas from further (judicial) registration.
The bench comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Aqeel Abbasi announced the verdict on Monday, Express News reported.
The Court ruled that Nazar Abbas acted without malice or personal gain in managing the schedule. “There was no negligence or intentional disregard of court orders in their actions,” the verdict said.
The verdict said the Practice and Procedure Committee overstepped its authority by retracting a case already under court orders. Similarly, judicial committees lacked the mandate to overturn a court order through administrative decisions.
“The committees ignored the court order, and this matter requires resolution by a full court,” the bench said, adding that under Article 175(6) of the Constitution, only a full court could decide on the actions of the committees. .
The Bench has referred the matter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, recommending the formation of a full bench to determine whether the actions of the Judicial Committees amounted to contempt.
The bench also directed that a customs case, which was wrongly recalled, was reassigned to the original three-member bench that had initially heard it.
The Chief Justice will now decide on convening a full tribunal to address the procedural and administrative irregularities raised in the ruling.
During the previous hearing, Justice Shah noted that after the formation of a constitutional bench (CB) within the SC in view of the 26th Constitutional Amendment, most of the cases were being transferred to the CB.
He said there was a need to review the jurisdiction of regular banks in relation to the CB. The bank then issued notices to the respondents.
On the next hearing date on January 16 of the bench members, Justice Khan, was replaced by Justice Aqeel Abbasi, who had heard the Customs Act case as a judge of the Sindh High Court. The bench expressed astonishment at the change in the composition of the bench and demanded that the previous bench be restored by adjourning the hearing till January 20.
However, an SC committee headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi on January 17 directed his office to withdraw these cases from the regular bench and place them before the CB committee constituted under Article 191a of the Constitution for recharge.
This move angered the regular bench members who issued a contempt notice to the additional registrar (judicial). The bench members also wrote a letter to the CJP Afridi-led committee.
In the letter, they stated that the office’s failure to comply with a court order not only undermines the integrity of the institution, but also defied a law established by this court that administrative orders cannot remove jurisdiction of the bank Taking cognizance of a matter’.
Despite the letter, the SC Regular Committee did not review its decision regarding withdrawal of the regular bank’s case but instead removed the additional registrar “on account of serious lapse” on January 21.
