LHC chief justice orders reshuffle of court staff

Issues detailed guidelines aimed at stamping out corruption.

FAISALABAD:

Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry has ordered immediate reshuffle of court staff and police officials assigned duties with the judicial establishment in the province.

This has been communicated by the LHC chief justice to all the offices of the district and sessions judges of Punjab through a directive titled “Eradication of corruption of the staff of district courts establishment”.

The chief justice observed that “complaints of corruption by the staff of the establishment of district courts are alarmingly high. It appears that the effective measures have still not been adopted to curb corruption”.

In the letter, Justice Chaudhry directed the DSJs of all the districts of Punjab “for reshuffling of the staff with immediate effect”. The letter adds: “DSJs and Senior Civil Judges (SCJs) shall remain available in their courts to attend the grievances and complaints of the litigants. A complaint box under a lock shall be placed outside the courts”.

“All the Naib Courts attached with the courts shall be withdrawn immediately by substituting new Naib Courts from the police department. Police officials overseeing the security of court premises shall also be changed with the consultation of the concerned authorities, following complaints of corruption,” reads the circular.

The chief justice directed that DSJs shall also involve the Anti-Corruption Department in suitable cases.

“All officials of each district shall submit their declarations of assets within a period of 15 days. Declaration shall be examined and verified.”

The chief justice also set a criteria for different kinds of workings of judicial officials in the lower judiciary in what he claimed measures to curb the “corrupt mafia”.

“It shall be ensured that the moment injunction order is passed; the process shall be issued the same day and served to the concerned party without any delay. By no means shall the Nazir or process server wait for the plaintiff/applicant/petitioner to approach him except in cases of deposit of process fee.

“The surety bonds shall be entertained and scrutinised by the judicial officers with minimum involvement of the court staff. All officials are now ordered to display their official cards for awareness of litigants about their names.”

The guidelines added, “Every judicial officer shall make surprise visits to observe his staff on a daily basis to monitor their performance.

“Once an official is found involved in corruption, the disciplinary proceedings shall be taken up without wastage of time and also by fixing a duration for the completion of the inquiry. This shall be the responsibility of the DSJ/SCJ. All these directions shall be complied with and any deviation from these directions shall attract disciplinary proceedings against the officer concerned,” the chief justice warned.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2011.