Supreme Court Justice Jamal Mandokhel has remarked that all 5 judges agreed that there can be no military trial of civilians.
A 7-member constitutional bench headed by Justice Aminuddin heard the intra-court appeal against the military trial of civilians.
Advocate Faisal Siddiqui, while initiating the arguments, said that there is not one but three decisions of the five-member bench against military courts. Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Muneeb Akhtar and Justice Yahya Afridi wrote their decisions. All the judges agreed with each other’s decisions. If the decisions of the judges are the same and the reasons are different, then all the reasons are considered part of the decision.
Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar said that the judges had written decisions, not additional notes, Justice Jamal Mandokhel remarked that all the five judges were agreed that there cannot be a military trial of civilians.
Advocate Faisal Siddiqui said that Uzair Bhandari took the position that the jurisdiction of intra-court appeal is limited, he does not agree with Uzair Bhandari’s position, Uzair Bhandari relied on Justice Mansoor Shah’s note in the Practice and Procedure case.
Justice Mazhar said that Justice Mansoor had declared the right of appeal from the past correct, I disagreed, if the right of appeal from the past was given, appeals would have started coming from 1973.
Faisal Siddiqui said that if the scope of appeal is limited, many of our appeals will also be dismissed. Justice Aminuddin said that while the review decision is heard by a larger bench in an intra-court appeal, the larger bench is hearing the case for the first time, so it is not bound by the previous decision.
