Supreme Court judges have expressed concern over a lack of transparency in case scheduling, with Justice Mansoor Ali Shah claiming he was unaware of a meeting of the judges’ committee despite being a member.
Advocate Salahuddin appeared before a three-member bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Express News reported.
Lawyer Salahuddin claimed that he came from Karachi, but the case was not scheduled to be heard that day. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah responded that he would look into the matter and summoned Supreme Court Additional Registrar Nazar Abbas to explain why the case had not been scheduled for hearing.
After a brief adjournment, the hearing resumed. Supreme Court Deputy Registrar Zulfiqar Ali appeared before the court and informed that a meeting of the judges’ committee had been held, where it was decided that the case would be scheduled for hearing before a constitutional court on January 27.
The undersecretary indicated that the committee’s decision was attached to the file. Justice Ayesha Malik added that the cases scheduled for the entire week had changed and details about these changes also needed to be provided.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, addressing the joint secretary, said that they were sitting in the tea room and asked for details of the minutes of the judges’ committee meeting and the changes made in the cases. He ordered that the minutes of the meeting be presented to them and that the judges return to the courtroom.
The Supreme Court subsequently adjourned the hearing till the next day and issued a show cause notice to the Additional Judicial Registrar under contempt of court.
The court ordered the Additional Judicial Registrar to appear personally and give explanations. He further ordered that the case be scheduled for first hearing at 9:30 am the next day.
The Supreme Court had earlier ordered that the case be heard for hearing on January 20 at 1 pm.
The Supreme Court stated that it had ordered the case to be presented before the same court. The court noted that the cause list of the case was not issued that day and that the Additional Registrar was absent due to health problems.
The Supreme Court office further reported that the committee of judges had scheduled the case before a constitutional court on January 27. However, the office had not yet received the minutes of the judges’ committee meeting where this decision was made.
The top court questioned how a court order dated January 16 could be ignored. It was also reported that all tax-related cases before this court had been cancelled. Additionally, the court was told that an investigation officer would now determine which cases should be brought before the constitutional court, effectively bypassing the injunction issued by the committee of judges.
Justice Ayesha Malik commented: “Will an investigating officer now decide where a case should be scheduled?” Justice Mansoor Ali Shah declared that the case had been transferred to the administrative committee.
He questioned why, if Judge Irfan Saadat was not available, another judge could not be assigned to fill the position, noting that the committee had no authority to prevent a case from being scheduled.
Justice Ayesha Malik further stated that the committee had no authority to transfer a case entirely. He added that according to the 26th Constitutional Amendment, this court should be called constitutional court and this matter could have been debated in its court.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah added that the case was not scheduled before his court or any other court; rather, they had made it disappear completely. He further stated that if the committee of judges had wanted, it could have reconstituted the entire court.
