SC sets aside IHC verdict on plots allotment to judges, bureaucrats

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday set aside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judgment that had scrapped the new policy of allotment of government plots to civil servants, generals, judges and journalists in sectors F-14 and F-15 of the federal capital.

A three-member SC bench, headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Ayesha A. Malik, announced the reserved judgment in the appeal, filed by the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA).

The court, on May 21, 2024, had reserved the judgment, directing the parties that they might file their written submissions.

On Wednesday, the court, while announcing the judgment, accepted the FGEHA appeal and set aside the IHC judgment for being in violation of the Constitution and law. “We are of the view that any findings, conclusions or rulings in the impugned judgment and the impugned order were beyond the constitutional mandate and authority of the high court,” says a 14-page judgment, authored by Justice Ayesha A. Malik. The Ednan Syed appeal and subsequent writ petitions (WPs) are restored to their original numbers, which should be deemed pending before the high court division bench and should be decided afresh within a period of 90 days from the receipt of a certified copy of the judgment, the court held.

Similarly, the court also restored the writ petition 2949 to its original number, which should be deemed pending before the IHC single judge and should be decided afresh within 90 days from the receipt of a certified copy of the judgment.

“Anyone, who has filed the petitions before this court but was not a party before the Division Bench or the Single Judge, may file appropriate impleadment applications before the respective benches of the High Court in these matters which shall be decided by the High Court in the first instance,” says the judgment.

The court held that any observations made herein are only to the extent of the impugned judgment and impugned order and without prejudice to the rights of any parties before the division bench in the Ednan Syed appeal and the subsequent WPs as well as the WP 2949 before the single judge. The court disposed of all CMAs accordingly.

Some 35 serving and retired government employees had challenged in the SC the verdict of IHC, scrapping the new policy of allotting government’s plots to civil servants, judges, generals and journalists in the federal capital.

IHC former chief justice Athar Minallah, on February 3, 2022, while hearing a petition, filed by one Ednan Syed and 10 others against the FGEHF, had scrapped the new policy of allotting government plots to civil servants, judges, generals and journalists in the federal capital.