Amicus Curiae Hamid Khan told the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday that a judicial order could not be replaced by an administrative one.During the hearing of the contempt of court case against the additional registrar judicial for not fixing the apex court benches’ jurisdiction case for the hearing, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah asked whether anywhere in the world the executive, and not the judiciary, formed benches. “Hamid Khan sahib, can you cite only one instance in this regard.” Hamid stated categorically that nowhere in the world there was such a practice. A two-member bench of the SC, headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, heard the case.

 Justice Mansoor went on to say that the basic question was how on earth could the judges' committee transfer the case to the constitutional bench when the judicial order existed at that time?   Hamid said it was not possible that some SC judges wielded more powers than their colleagues.  He said that the SC had been set up under Article 175 of the constitution.  He said that the definition of the apex court was clear. “According to that definition, all apex court judges could wield their powers. It is not that only some judges are entitled to do that.”

 Justice Mansoor said that Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Aminuddin Khan were the committee members. “Prima facie a two-member bench ignored the judicial order,” he said, and added that in his opinion a full court could be formed if the committee of judges overlooked the judicial order.  Justice Aqeel Abbasi opined he had doubts in his mind about that.  Additional Registrar Judicial Nazar Abbas, who submitted his reply to the show-cause notice, prayed to the court to withdraw the notice, saying he had not committed contempt of court. 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)