District judiciary ordered to dispose of unnecessary record

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has ordered the district judiciary of Punjab to destroy all unnecessary record of both civil and criminal cases.

The Directorate of District Judiciary of the LHC issued a directive to all district & sessions judges of the province to this effect on behalf of Chief Justice Muhammad Yawar Ali.

It said the record of some civil criminal cases is required to be destroyed after a specific time period under the LHC rules and orders. It stated that the relevant rules and orders have not been implemented for so long. Therefore, all the district & sessions judges are directed to put all unnecessary record to destruction, the directive added.

licensing policy: The Lahore High Court Tuesday directed the Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) to present licensing policy after traffic police denied driving licence to a deaf citizen. Muhammad Haider, a student at a private university, approached the Lahore High Court through a writ petition.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Advocate Mian Ismatullah argued that Haider duly completed his driving training from the driving school of Lahore traffic police and also got a certificate. But the traffic police declined to issue learner driving licence to the petitioner on the pretext of being deaf. He added that the traffic police had told him that under the policy deaf persons could not be given driving licence.

The counsel pointed out that the act of the traffic police was discriminatory in nature and violation of fundamental rights of persons with special needs. He said no law put bar on driving of deaf persons as motorway police also mentioned deaf persons in its policy on eligible drivers.

The counsel contended that all over the world deaf persons were allowed to drive on roads. Even in India there is no bar on deaf persons’ driving, he added. He pointed out that Pakistan also imported customised cars for people with special needs.

He asked the court to order the traffic police to issue driving licence to the petitioner and all other deaf persons who duly applied for it. Justice Sajid Mahmood Sethi heard the arguments and issued notices to the Punjab government and the CTO for March 12.