Judges’ extension: Apex court overrules parliamentary panel

Committee’s decision deemed ‘contradictory to the Constitution’,

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a parliamentary committee’s decision not to grant extensions to six high court judges and directed the government to issue the appointment notifications.

The apex court issued the ruling on petitions challenging the eight-member parliamentary committee on the appointment of judges’ decision to decline the Judicial Commission’s recommendations to extend the service tenure of the six judges.

A four-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice MA Shahid Siddiqui, heard the case and declared the committee’s decision “contradictory to the Constitution”.

During the hearing, petitioners’ counsels Makhdoom Ali Khan and Anwar Mansoor Khan argued that the apex court had the authority to review and interpret constitutional amendments.

They named some retired judges of the Supreme Court who they said were experienced in the Criminal Procedure Code, but that did not disqualify them from being appointed to the apex court.

“Before being elevated to the high court, I was not very aware of services laws, but that did not make me ineligible,” Justice Jawad S Khawaja remarked.Khan said that the committee was not authorised to review the qualifications or ability of a judge.

The committee had denied  one-year extensions to four additional judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) and two of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on the basis of assessments provided by the respective chief justices, which in turn were based on the judges’ conduct and character.

The judges are Justices S Mazhar Ali, M Yawar Ali, Mamun Rasheed and M Farrukh Irfan of the LHC and Muhammad Tasneem and Salman Hamid of the SHC.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2011.