The Supreme Court has withdrawn the contempt notice against Additional Registrar Nazar Abbas, the file has been sent to the Chief Justice to constitute a full court on the authority of the committees.
The Supreme Court has pronounced the verdict in the Additional Registrar contempt case, the verdict has said that the contempt notice against the Additional Registrar is withdrawn, the Additional Registrar did not knowingly violate the court order.
The verdict has said that the file has been sent to the Chief Justice to constitute a full court on the authority of the committees.
The verdict further states that judges committees do not have the authority to withdraw a case under trial from the bench, court orders cannot be changed at the administrative level, prima facie contempt of court proceedings are against judges committees, contempt of court proceedings are not being taken against judges committees.
It may be recalled that on Saturday, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court in the contempt of court case, wrote a letter to the Judges Committee objecting to the intra-court appeal bench.
In the letter sent to the Judges Committee, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah objected to the inclusion of Justice Jamal Mandokhel and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar in the intra-court appeal bench.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah has taken the position in the letter that a Judicial Commission meeting was held on January 23. After the meeting, the Chief Justice called an informal meeting of the committee in his chamber. In the meeting, he suggested that a 5-member bench be formed on the appeal based on seniority.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah has further written in the letter that he suggested that those judges who are also members of the committee should not be included. The Chief Justice said that he would prefer to form a 4-member bench.
Justice Mansoor Shah wrote that at 9:33 pm, my secretary received a WhatsApp message. The secretary asked me for approval of the 6-member bench. I told the secretary that I have an objection to it and will reply in the morning.
The senior judge further wrote in the letter that at 10:28 pm, the secretary informed that a 6-member bench has been formed. He wrote that I have an objection to the bench to the extent of two members.
It should be noted that on January 21, senior judges of the Supreme Court, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Ayesha Malik and Justice Aqeel Abbasi, wrote a letter to Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and the head of the Constitutional Bench, Justice Aminuddin, on the issue of non-scheduling of the bench powers case.
The letter stated that the committee could not go against the judicial order and was bound to fix the case on January 20. We are not aware of the committee’s decision. The cause list for the entire week was also changed and the cases were removed from the bench without issuing an order.
The letter stated that the failure of the office and the integrity of the institution were damaged due to non-compliance with the court order, the law laid down by the court was violated, the jurisdiction of the bench to take notice cannot be taken away, and serious concerns also arise about the independence of the benches.
Later, the Supreme Court removed Additional Registrar Judicial Nazar Abbas from the post. In a notification issued in this regard, it was said that Additional Registrar Judicial Nazar Abbas committed a serious mistake. The Registrar Supreme Court has been directed to look into the matter.
It was further stated that the Additional Registrar Judicial mistakenly fixed the case of the Constitutional Bench for hearing before the regular bench, resulting in a waste of time and resources of the Supreme Court and the parties.
