ISLAMABAD, Jan 27 (APP): The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan has withdrawn the show-cause notice for contempt of court proceedings against Additional Registrar (Judicial), SC and has sent the matter of ‘non-fixation of case as per judicial order’ to the Chief Justice of Pakistan for constitution of a Full Court of the SCP to decide the matter.
A two-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and comprising Justice Aqeel Ahmad Abbasi, announced the reserved decision on Monday relating to superseding a judicial order through an administrative committee and the jurisdictions of regular benches.
Attorney General of Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan, Amicus Curiae Advocates Supreme Court Hamid Khan and Munir A Malik, (through video link from Karachi), Khwaja Haris, Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon, ASCs Salahuddin Ahmad, Shahid Jamil and Nazar Abbas, Additional Registrar Judicial SCP were present in the Court when Justice Mansoor Ali Shah announced the judgment.
According to the judgment, the court found that Nazar Abbas, Additional Registrar SC did not deliberately avoid the fixation of the cases before the Bench as directed by the court order. ‘There is no evidence to suggest that he had any personal interest in the matter or had connived with any of the parties to the case, nor did he act with the intention of causing damage to any of the parties to the case. There is no indication of mala fide intent in his actions. In the absence of any such factors or elements of contumacy, his conduct cannot be considered contumacious, nor can it be said to have suffered from mala fides, requiring contempt proceedings against him.’
The court accepted his explanation to the show-cause notice for the contempt of court proceedings and the notice is discharged.
The judgment said that it appears that the matter has to proceed further against the members of the two committees. However, judicial propriety and decorum demand that the said question be considered and decided by the full court of the Supreme Court so that it is authoritatively decided once and for all.
The judgment further clarified that the matter is not referred to the committee constituted under Section 2 of the Act, as its authority is limited to constituting benches of the SC. The full court of the SC, however, is constituted by the Constitution itself under article 176. The distinction between the benches of a court and the full court is well-established and constitutionally recognized in the provisions of Article 203 of the Constitution and the responsibility of convening the full court conventionally falls with the domain of the Chief Justice.
