SC moved to regulate ‘discretionary powers’ of high court CJs

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) was requested on Friday to regulate the discretionary powers of Chief Justices of five High Courts across the country.

Mian Dawood advocate filed a petition in the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution making Secretary Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Chief Secretaries of four provinces and Registrars of all high courts as respondents.

The petitioner specifically cited the example of exercise of discretionary powers and issuance of various orders by the recently retired Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court Muhammad Amir Bhatti.

The petitioner alleged the outgoing CJ gave advance increments to hundreds of employees a day before his retirement in the name of excellent performance.

“There is no example of giving advance increment for a period of two and a half years, advance increment has been given to the transferred Registrar High Court and the Registrar High Court who was appointed two months ago”, the petitioner alleged.

He submitted that four-years academic leave with pay was granted to the wife of an LHC official who is a senior civil judge while there is no record of any university on file for the leave.

The petitioner submitted that the sentences of more than 50 employees of Lahore High Court had been revoked. He further submitted that the termination of sentences under discretionary powers is tantamount to disabling the service tribunals established under the law.

According to the petitioner, two LHC officials have also been given advance increments and promoted after completing their sentences, after which no new officer of the court is ready to take the responsibility of investigating the files of the two officials, and their files are moving from one branch to another branch”, the petitioner contended. He further submitted that most of the notifications on behalf of the former CJ had been issued on March 6, a day before his retirement.

The petitioner submitted that the administrative powers of the High Courts should be vested in the administrative committees instead of a single person (Chief Justice) because by allowing a single person to exercise the powers.

He prayed to the apex court to issue an appropriate order to regulate the powers of the Chief Justices of the five High Courts across the country.

He prayed the apex court declare the advance increments as illegal and issue an order for their return to the national exchequer.