SC appoints Hamid and Malik to assist the Court on benches jurisdictions

The Supreme Court has appointed senior advocates Hamid Khan and Munir A Malik as amicus curiae to assist the Court on questions relating to the jurisdictions of regular benches and withdrawal of cases through the Practice and Procedure Committee despite a judicial order to fix a case before a particular bench.

A complex situation arose during hearing of certain cases regarding tax matters and the jurisdiction of regular benches of the Supreme Court. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was conducting the proceedings on Thursday January 16.

Justice Aqeel Abbasi was included in the bench as replacement for Justice Irfan Saadat for hearing the matter. The Court observed that Justice Aqeel Abbasi was part of the high court bench that heard the same matter so the plea should be placed before the same bench and be fixed for Monday January 20. The Court was disappointed to note that the case was not fixed according to the judicial order and was sent to the Constitutional Bench for hearing on January 27.

The Court summoned the Registrar SCP to explain the situation but he was not available due to health issue. Additional Registrar SCP appeared before the Court and informed that the case was sent to the Constitutional Bench by the Practice and Procedure Committee.

The Court expressed displeasure over the development and issued contempt of court notice to the Registrar for not complying with the Court clear directives.
In today’s (Tuesday) hearing, the Additional Registrar informed the Court that the Procedure Committee has sent the case to the Constitutional Bench. After the 21 Amendment, the Committee decides what case should be fixed before the Constitutional Bench and what before the regular bench?

Justice Mansoor, however, said that the Committee cannot supersede a judicial order. When a case comes before a bench, even mistakenly, the rest is up to the bench and an administrative committee cannot withdraw it.

The Additional Registrar argued before the Court that the Committee fixes cases before benches and can withdraw them too.

Justice Mansoor remarked that it will be decided by the Court that either the Committee can withdraw a case or not? We desired to hear from the Registrar Judicial and you are the administrative one (apparently not relevant).

Barrister Salahuddin opined that the Committee or the Research Cell of the SCP can only put a note for fixing a case before a certain bench, but the final decision is made by the Court. It is a routine matter in Sindh High Court where regular and constitutional benches send case to each other almost on daily basis.

The Court adjourned the proceedings for tomorrow and appointed senior advocates SCP Hamid Khan and Munir A Malik to assist the Court on questions regarding the Jurisdictions of the regular benches. The Court also summoned the Attorney General for Pakistan to appear before the Court.