KARACHI:
Having pushed into unending litigation for many years, I cannot help but wonder why there is no accountability for judges passing illegal orders. Why is a judge, who has acted illegally in imparting justice, allowed to simply walk away unpunished?
To clear my point, let me first explain what an illegal order is. It is an order illegally passed by a judge against whom the aggrieved files a review, revision or appeal as a last chance for getting justice. The order is remanded by the appellate court on the grounds of being illegal, null and void. Needless to say, a judge will only pass an illegal order if he is incompetent, callous or has some unknown reasons for taking such liberty with law. If anyone wants to count the number of illegal cases reverted and retried, they can look them up in the law digests or ask any senior lawyer. It is definitely not desirable that any judge should pass illegal orders or judgments for any reason and my prayer is that if he does that, he ought to be held accountable and appropriate action, such as suspending him, be taken by the higher-ups. Unless judges, too, are made accountable, it may not be possible to serve the cause of justice as the law itself would tend to act as a tool to destroy it by incompetent hands. If accountability is desired, it should be desired for all without exception and it may be requested that the Supreme Judicial Council look into this matter as well.
Mazhar Butt
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2013.
