God’s wrath be on judge giving wrong verdict wilfully: IHC judge

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri said Tuesday a judge deliberately making a wrong judgement will face Allah’s wrath for violating his oath of office.

The judge was addressing a convention of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association on the court premises..

He said every judge should know that the greatest is the court of God and His justice is certain.

He told the audience that the judges take an oath to abide by the Constitution and the law. He said he always recites the Holy Quran and Durood Sharif before attending any hearing.

Justice Jahangiri said that due to an incident on February 8, 2021, differences occurred between the bar and bench, which were being bridged. He said that lawyers should come before the courts fully prepared to pursue their cases. Assistance from lawyers helps the judges reach their verdicts, he added.

Justice Jahangiri was of the view that a judge may err and that is why law provides for intra-court appeal as well as an appeal to the Supreme Court.

He explained that the provision of appeals had been made because judges could make unintentional mistakes. He, however, asserted that if a judge deliberately made a wrong decision, he deserves God’s wrath.

He said he could give many examples where Allah served justice when a worldly court did not serve justice.

Justice Jahangiri claimed that he had never made any recommendation for hiring anyone for any post. He asserted that no one could say that he came to him with a CV for the hiring of advocate general, deputy prosecutor or deputy attorney general.

If one’s intentions were right and they acted with honesty, Allah helped them, Justice Jahangiri stated.

The IHC judge said that when there was a trend of registration of multiple cases pertaining to a single incident in different police stations of the country, he gave the verdict that multiple FIRs could not be registered for one incident.

IHCBA President Riasat Ali Azad said most members of the bar were students of Justice Jahangiri. He added that many verdicts announced by Justice Jahangiri were an asset for the legal profession.

The judiciary needed courageous and independent judges like him, Azad said, adding that the bar served as the protective walls of the judiciary and such walls needed to be strengthened or else anyone would trespass into judicial domain.

Islamabad Bar Council member Raja Aleem Abbasi agreed that judges could give wrong decisions. However, he said no one should go for their arm-twisting.

He said the bars of Islamabad stood with the independent judiciary and lawyers were with the judges in the fight for the independence of the judiciary.

He recalled that in the past, judicial appointments were made on the basis of intelligence agencies’ reports. However, when Justice Athar Minallah became the IHC chief justice, he made appointments of judges on merit. Abbasi said the reappointment of judges after retirement from the Supreme Court had always been rejected by the bars. The judges should not take office again after retirement, he remarked.

At the end of the ceremony, a commemorative shield was presented to Justice Jahangiri by the IHCBA.