The Supreme Court has been able to reduce the pendency by more than 2,000 cases during the tenure of current Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, despite three post of apex court judges are lying vacant.
When Justice Bandial took oath as the chief justice of Pakistan on February 2, 2022, a total of 53,964 cases were pending in the apex court. However, the number of pending cases has now reduced to 51,581.
Above 10,000 cases were increased during tenure of Chief Justice Bandial’s predecessor, former chief justice Gulzar Ahmed. Besides, the ratio of reduction in pendency is also much higher during tenure of Chief Justice Bandial as compare to other chief justices.
During the tenure of former chief justice Gulzar Ahmed, discipline issues were witnessed in fixation of cases, while composition of benches was also changed frequently, hampering the apex court’s working.
On the other hand, discipline is being witnessed in fixation of cases and formation of benches during the tenure of the incumbent top judge. The cause list was normally issued on Saturday. However, now the final cause list for the next week is being issued on Thursday.
This time around, five benches are working during summer vacations. For the next week, from July 4 to July 8, chief justice Bandial has constituted five benches at the Principal Seat, Islamabad, to expedite the case hearings and clear the backlog. The routine will continue during the entire summer.
Also read: SC cases pendency went down in last three months
In the month of June, according to statistics, the pendency or backlog of cases in the Supreme Court reduced by 1,504, while 1,442 new cases were instituted. A total of 2,946 cases were disposed of from since June 1, 2022. As of June 30 51,581 cases were pending in the apex court.
According to a Supreme Court statement, the judges, being cognisant of the pendency and backlog of cases, remained committed to accelerate disposal of the cases and reduce the backlog during the summer spell.
The judges continued to hear the case in various benches by utilising better case management strategies with the aim to minimise the backlog and provide relief to the litigants,” the statement added.
Senior lawyer, Mansoor Awan Advocate said that the institutional resolve to decide pending cases in time was highly commendable.
“Case management is an important tool to decide cases and it is heartening to see this happening at the SC level. However, equally important is to ensure that the vacant positions in the SC are also filled in a timely manner to achieve this objective”, he added.
Senior lawyers are stressing the need for forming a special bench to hear jail petitions. They suggest that the apex court also required one more judge with expertise in the criminal law.
The lawyers are also urging the chief justice to summon a full court meeting to get inputs of all the judges for the improvement in the case management system. No full court has been held in last couple of years
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