ISLAMABAD: Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah asked the Supreme Court deputy registrar why the case related to the court’s jurisdiction was not fixed for hearing yet.
Last week, the SC was supposed to deliberate on a recurring question about whether regular benches could hear matters involving the constitutionality of laws, following the establishment of the Constitutional Bench under the 26th Amendment.
However, at a January 16 hearing, the SC deferred the deliberations until Jan 20.Headed by senior puisne judge Justice Shah, a three-judge SC bench earlier noted that it had become necessary to resolve the controversy in light of objections raised during proceedings and the reply provided by one of the lawyers.
The deliberation was pushed to Jan 20 following a change in the bench’s composition, with Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi replacing Justice Irfan Saadat Khan as its third member, who was previously part of the court when the issue initially cropped up.
The bench was hearing an appeal filed by the federal government through the revenue division against the Sindh High Court’s decision to strike down Section 221-A(2) of the Customs Act, 1969.At the outset of today’s hearing, Justice Shah summoned additional registrar Nazr Abbasi.
Advocate Salahuddin Ahmed, representing the respondents, also appeared in court. He noted that he had travelled from Karachi just for this case but the cause list had not been issued. “The court had ordered to schedule the case for today”.
“We were not informed about anything in this regard,” Justice Shah said, following which he summoned the additional registrar to inquire why the case had not been scheduled.However, deputy registrar Zulfiqar Ahmed appeared in court, stating that the additional registrar was unwell and on leave.
When asked, the deputy registrar responded by saying: “The judges’ committee decided that the case related to the 26th Amendment will be heard by the Constitutional Bench on Jan 27.”“I myself am part of this committee and I am not aware of this,” Justice Shah said.
“How can the administrative committee ignore the judicial order?” Justice Ayesha Malik asked.Justice Abbasi asked the deputy registrar if the court order was placed before the committee, which the latter affirmed.
“Why was the whole week’s cause list changed?” Justice Malik asked. “We had scheduled tax cases which were changed.”
