Week’s proceedings prove that justice is indeed blind

LHC judge has order passed against him by a junior in property case

LAHORE: Justice is indeed blind and sometimes even a judge can be on the losing side at the Lahore High Court.

A case in point emerged last week when a serving judge was declared at fault by his junior.

Justice Ibarur Rehman Lodhi declared that an order issued by then Circle Registrar (Housing) Nisar Ahmed, who is now serving as Sheikhupura district officer, is illegal.

The CR ordered Cooperative Model Town Society (CMTS) to enlist Justice Abdul Sami Khan as a member for owning a two-kanal residential plot and declare him as the owner of the property.

However, the CMTS informed the registrar that the judge purchased the plot from a man who was not the actual owner. Therefore, he could not be granted membership.



Justice Lodhi, a junior to Justice Sami at the LHC, passed his order on a petition filed by Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, Ghulam Moinuddin Javed and Sajid Arif Nomani, who claimed they were the actual owners of the land.

Justice Lodhi, in his seven-page order, ruled that the CR passed the order by reopening a matter which had already been decided by his superior; the registrar. He concluded that the CR was not competent to reopen the matter and proceeded in a direction entirely different to his senior officer.

On March 31, 2015, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, now a judge of the Supreme Court, issued a stay order and restrained CMTS from enlisting Justice Sami as a member.

The petitioners, through Advocate Ahmed Awais, stated that Justice Sami had agreed to purchase the property from an alleged land grabber. The petitioners said they were the legal heirs of the late Shehzadi Badshah Begum, who, being a refugee claimant, had been allotted an eight-kanal bungalow on November 18, 1959. The petitioners also claimed they were in possession of the land.

Justice Sami, through an advocate, claimed to have possession of the disputed property. However, Justice Lodhi ruled that according to CMTS records, the petitioners were members of the society and among the seven people in possession.

Advocate Ahmed Awais contended that according to the society’s by-laws, no transaction over the sale or purchase of property could be made without obtaining a no-objection certificate (NoC). He pointed out to the judge that an NOC had not been issued by the society.



Advocate Awais told the court that Kamran Sarfraz, a land grabber, had forged the sale deed of two kanals of the property for Rs2 million. He said that on June 25, 2014, Sarfraz apparently sold the land to Justice Abdul Sami Khan for Rs6 million per kanal. He added the actual price of the land is many times higher.

On September 9, 2014, Justice Sami filed an application with the CMTS secretary, asking for membership to the society. Advocate Awais said that on December 29 of the same year, the society management replied to the judge, saying, “You have apparently purchased the plots from Kamran Sarfraz, son of Sarfraz Khan, who is not an owner/member of the said property.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2017.