National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law has approved the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023. The NA committee on Wednesday gave its assent to the legislation by incorporating three amendments in it. On Tuesday, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had referred the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023 to the committee of the House for consideration.

Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar had tabled the bill in the House and addressed the legislators about the harmful practices of the suo-motu notices in the past. Addressing the House, the law minister said in the past the Supreme Court took four suo-motu notices in a day on administrative matters while there has been a lot of criticism regarding the rules of the apex court of the country.

Earlier, the federal cabinet had also approved the Supreme Court Amendment Bill 2023 paving way for handing over the suo-motu powers to a senior judges' committee. The cabinet also decided to grant a right of appeal on suo-motu. It is proposed in the bill that three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court will decide the suo-motu notice. While there is also a proposal to grant a right to file an appeal within 30 days against the suo-motu decision and the appeal should be fixed for hearing within 14 days of its filing.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP