ISLAMABAD: The three senior judges of the Supreme Court have fallen into serious differences over the determination of the hearing of petitions against the 26th constitutional amendment.
It has been learned that two senior judges, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Muneeb Akhtar, had written a letter to Chief Justice Yahya Afridi on October 31 to convene an urgent meeting of the committee working under the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Act 2023. Despite this, the Chief Justice did not call the meeting, on which two members Justice Mansoor and Justice Muneeb held a meeting in the chamber of Justice Muneeb Akhtar.
The two members of the committee decided by a majority that the petitions against the 26th constitutional amendment should be taken up for hearing in the full court on November 4. However, no cause list was issued for filing constitutional petitions.
Both Justice Mansoor Shah and Justice Muneeb wrote another letter to Chief Justice Afridi yesterday in which they expressed their regret for not deciding the constitutional petition against the 26th constitutional amendment as per their judgment.
In the letter, the judges wrote that as you are aware, under Section 2(2) of the Act, the undersigned members of the Committee have requested to convene a meeting of the Committee on October 31, 2024 to consider the challenge to the 26th Amendment. Determination and hearing of constitutional petitions can be considered immediately.
Keeping in view the sensitivity of the matter, we proceeded under section 2(2) of the Act and convened a meeting of the Committee on the same day, the decision of which was communicated immediately on the same day as section 2(2) of the Act. Three) is effective under
As per the committee’s decision, constitutional petitions challenging the 26th Constitutional Amendment should be placed before the Full Court and fixed for hearing on November 4, 2024. The letter further states that no cause list of the Full Court was issued on November 4 in the matter of the said constitutional petitions, which the Committee deeply concerns and regrets.
This decision of the committee stands and will have effect. We are therefore compelled to positively decide the above constitutional petitions before the Full Court this week and issue the cause list accordingly immediately. According to the letter, through the earlier decision of the committee, the Registrar has been directed to upload the judgment dated 31 October 2024 on the website of the Supreme Court.
